“Suspected fraud” on €30,000 of credit card payments (and questions over €97,000 more), almost €1 million in unpaid salaries, and two dozen staff claiming €868,740 in ineligible school fees — these are among the problems facing the European Commission-backed Organisation of African, Caribbean, Pacific States, according to internal documents seen by Devex.
The 50-year-old Brussels-based organization is on life support, with an internal battle over who replaces its outgoing Secretary-General Georges Chikoti, and doubts over whether there will be anything left to lead after the commission suspended its decades-long funding last month, citing financial mismanagement.
An official from an ACP country, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Devex that the organization is now “completely bankrupt” and makes its 79 members “embarrassed permanently.”