Share
RSSUpdate on the Church of South India
October 12, 2009
Today, Episcopal Relief & Development has learned about the arrests of two former Church of South India (CSI) employees in Chennai, India, regarding the alleged misuse of funds related to tsunami relief efforts. The arrests were part of an ongoing local police investigation initiated by CSI, a United Church and a member of the Anglican Communion.
We are in the process of filing a separate legal action in accordance with our pledge of transparency and accountability to faithfully administer the funds that are received to assist vulnerable people. Two years ago, Episcopal Relief & Development raised concerns with the Church authorities when CSI failed to complete the financial reporting and required audits outlined in our agreement. Since then, we have suspended programs with CSI as we work to appropriately account for funds allocated in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
In keeping with board policy, we routinely hire international accounting and auditing firms to assess multi-year and long-term program partnerships. This audit process ensures the proper use of donated funds. In the case of CSI, we did not receive the required audits and as is our policy, we suspended programs immediately in order to gain clarity about the work completed. After two years, we were forced to pursue legal action. We expect our lawsuit to be filed in India within the next few days.
This situation is highly unusual in our work. By and large, our global partners are extremely diligent in providing required reports and conducting audits. Our partnership with CSI was only a portion of our tsunami response efforts. As per standard plans and agreements, clean audits were completed with our church partners in both North India and Sri Lanka.
We hope that the Indian authorities will work quickly to resolve this matter. Episcopal Relief & Development’s sole desire is that this money be used to benefit the people who were impacted by the tsunami, as originally intended. As this is a judicial and legal matter in India, we cannot comment further about the current situation.
Episcopal Relief & Development is committed to complete transparency on behalf of those we seek to serve and our faithful donors. We are deeply grateful for their support and prayers at this time.
Episcopal Relief & Development is the international relief and development agency of the Episcopal Church of the United States. As an independent 501(c) (3) organization, Episcopal Relief & Development takes its mandate from Jesus’ words found in Matthew 25. Its programs work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Together with the worldwide Church and ecumenical partners, Episcopal Relief & Development strengthens communities today to meet tomorrow’s challenges. We rebuild after disasters and empower people by offering lasting solutions that fight poverty, hunger and disease, including HIV/AIDS and malaria.
