International Aid Campaign (IAC), a private humanitarian organization active in the Maldives, has failed to release an audit report on their finances despite six months having elapsed from when they committed to it's publishing.
IAC, which conducts campaigns to collect and provide aid to people in need across a number of countries, was entrusted with the delivery of aid to the Palestinian people following escalations in violence by Israeli occupation forces in the region in October last year.
After public scrutiny on their large scale crowdfunding operation, IAC was pushed to deny allegations of fraud in their handling of the money and they stated then that an audit report would be released soon regarding their use of the funds. When questioned by 'Mihaaru' journalists regarding delays in publicizing the audit report on 1 April, IAC Chairman Ahmed Iqbal said that he would answer any queries via mail. However, despite two weeks having passed since this exchange, IAC has failed to provide a response to questions posed by journalists regarding their use of the funds and the promised audit report. Iqbal has declined follow-up calls and messages by 'Mihaaru', and has been unresponsive to messages sent as recently as Monday.
Serious allegations of corruption and fradulent mismanagement of funds were raised against IAC by an anonymous account in a post on the social media platform "X". The post sparked concern and questions among members of the public, who also pushed for IAC to publicize an audit report to disprove the claims of fraud.
Following accounts of alleged fraud on behalf of IAC, the organization's Director of Media and Public Relations Azhad Ahmed stated that it was not IAC's policy to respond to anonymous claims made on social media regarding their operations.
Azhad maintained that the IAC, which was established in 2016, has always upheld a "high level of transparency", adding that the money entering their account would never be left undocumented.
According to details published by the IAC, all but 12.5 percent of all aid funds collected by them is spent on providing aid to people in need across various countries. The 12.5 percent was justified as costs for the administration and logistic efforts that go into the actual delivery of aid to the people.
The IAC runs the largest aid campaign in Maldives to provide humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza, Palestine, who are under attack from Israeli Occupation Forces amid escalating tensions and the threat of war in the Middle East. The crowdfunding platform championed by IAC to provide relief to people in Gaza has received over MVR 20 million from donations from the Maldivian public.
While allegations have been raised against IAC regarding their transparency in handling funds, other private organizations in the Maldives have also come under scrutiny with some being similarly accused of fraud in recent weeks.
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