AS soon as efforts began to tackle decades-long corruption within charitable activities, some religious associations mobilized their members to attack the government’s decision. They repeated false accusations, except for one undeniable truth: the decision was deeply bitter for them. It inflicted enormous financial losses and was nothing short of a disaster in their view. Their protests followed the government’s measures, which included suspending donation via bank links, halting overseas money transfers, and shutting down charity associations operating in residential areas. One of them claimed that three individuals were behind the decision, describing them in ways I cannot repeat as they constitute clear accusations that violate the law . I do not know exactly who he is referring to.
The aforementioned decisions were issued by the government, and these accusations seem to insult it . Perhaps the government will inquire what they mean by these allegations. What many may not know is that these decisions were not only justified, but their issuance had been delayed for decades, during which many charitable officials amassed wealth illegally. I support all the measures taken, even though I am the founder and president of a charitable organization. If our charity or those who rely on our assistance were among the victims, I would have been the first to complain.
Over the past thirty years, I have written more than 100 articles highlighting the mistakes made by some charitable organizations. As a result of these articles, I have been referred to the judiciary multiple times, solely for advocating stricter oversight of charitable organizations, including the publication of their budgets and monitoring the destination of donations sent abroad. I opposed the unrestricted powers granted to some officials of one of the largest and most widespread charitable organizations.
These officials were allowed to manage hundreds of millions of dinars without any oversight for 45 years, particularly after appointing the undersecretary of the ministry responsible for their supervision as a member of the organization’s board of directors. Instead of taking the initiative to amend their illegal status, they turned to the judiciary, which ultimately acquitted me. I have written extensively about the complete lack of oversight over the costs of projects that charities claim to establish abroad. I often wonder how a charity can repeatedly raise one million dinars to buy an injection for a sick child without providing basic details such as the name of the medicine, the manufacturer, a copy of the purchase offer, and the name and recommendation of the doctor in its social media campaigns.
After all, we are talking about one million dinars, not the small amount needed to buy a bag of onions. Over the past 30 years, I have written hundreds of articles criticizing the actions of dozens of charitable organizations. None of the hundreds of officials from the charities I directly accused ever wrote a single response or contacted me to point out where I might have gone wrong . The reason was often their reluctance to raise the issue, as it would threaten the continued siphoning of donations. A newspaper’s pages are not enough to fully cover the stories of corruption, but the sheer number of charities, their widespread branches, and the similarity of their goals have always been a source of suspicion. During Ramadan, the government requested that charities contribute to raising funds to pay off the debts of insolvent debtors.
However, the donations were quite modest, even though the same charities succeeded, during the same period, in raising many times that amount for their projects in 75 countries, including initiatives like digging water wells and purchasing mattresses. The reason for the weakness of the first national campaign and the great success of the second lies in the fact that, in the first campaign, the ministry prohibited the charities from deducting any portion of the donations as a bonus . As a result, they were reluctant to collect. In contrast, they were active in the second campaign because 12.5 percent of the donations were deducted for the benefit of charity workers.
If I were an official, I would demand that the boards of directors of all charities, without exception, be referred to the Public Prosecution to investigate the fate of the funds they have collected over the past ten years . Shocking facts have been uncovered. Charity work is still thriving, and we continue our efforts. However, what has changed is that charity work has become significantly less corrupt after charitable activities were confined within Kuwait’s borders.
By Ahmad alsarraf
email: [email protected]
