Sections:
Freedom of Information disclosure - F2005/236
Date of release 14 December 2005
Disclosure in response to FOI request reference number F2005/236 - Information on Palestinian NGO projects
The request to DFID was:
“1. How much money was given to the 'Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies', 'Mandela Institute for Prisoners',' Rights Association - Al Dameer' and 'Palestinian NGO Networks' for 'damage repair'
2. How much money was given to 'Land Research Center/ Arab Studies Society' for 'Rehabilitation of Agricultural Lands' and 'Individual Land Reclamation Depending on Manual Labor'
3. How much money was given to The Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution for 'Al-Basma Project for Psychological Support'
4. How much money was given to 'The Palestinian Federation Women's Action Committees' for non-formal education
5. What, if any, monitoring was there of exactly how these moneys were spent.”
With regard to parts 1-4 of the request, the amount of grant awarded in each case was as follows:
Damage Repair
Ramallah Centre for Human Rights Studies |
US$ 2,772 |
Mandela Institute for Prisoners |
US$ 9,000 |
Rights Association, Al Dameer |
US$ 9,000 |
Palestinian NGO Networks |
US$10,000 |
Development Grants
Land Research Centre/Arab Studies Society –Rehabilitation of Agricultural Lands |
US$50,500 |
Land Research Centre/Arab Studies Society - Individual Land Reclamation Depending on Manual Labour |
US$90,984 |
The Palestinian Centre for Democracy and Conflict Resolution |
US$60,900 |
Non Formal Education
The Palestinian Federation Women’s Action Committees |
US$85,780 |
With regard to the monitoring of expenditure (part 5 of the request), the World Bank (who provide overall management of the Palestinian NGO project on behalf of the donors, including DFID) employs very clear and stringent financial management reporting and procurement policies. Every grant which they approve is based on a budget with a clear breakdown of expenditures to be made against the grant amount. Supporting documentation is kept on file.
In the case of small amounts of funding, financial transactions are subject to a review performed by the World Bank's financial and procurement specialists. These reviews are based on a randomly selected sample.
For the procurement of services or goods costing a relatively large amount of money, a 'prior no objection' consent is required from either the Welfare Association Consortium (who manage the actual grants programme) or the World Bank. This will depend on the amount of money involved.
All project expenditure is also subject to an independent financial audit.
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