Charity’s Abuse of U.S. Food Aid in India Told

An audit of U.S. aid to Roman Catholic charities in India found that bishops, priests and nuns misused millions of dollars, and the U.S. Embassy said today that an investigation is under way.

The audit by the U.S. accounting firm Price Waterhouse said officials in India’s Roman Catholic Church, which receives $25 million in U.S. food annually, drew up bogus lists of food recipients and used donations to run businesses. Clergy also purposely exaggerated the amount of aid they distributed and filed false reports to hide the abuses, the audit said.

The audit was ordered by the Inspector General’s office of the U.S. Agency for International Development and focused on Catholic Relief Services, a Baltimore-based charity, which gives food to 4,600 groups that distribute the food to the needy, mostly children and pregnant women.

Most of the organizations are Roman Catholic, although Hindu, Muslim and non-religious groups participate. They include the Missionaries of Charity run by Nobel laureate Mother Teresa.

James DeHarpporte, head of Catholic Relief Services’ operations in India, said the audit was “unfair and highly exaggerated the extent of our problems.” But he acknowledged the organization is undergoing a management shake-up.

The U.S. Embassy said today that the Central Bureau of Investigation, India’s version of the FBI, and the investigative wing of the U.S. Agency for International Development are looking into the reported abuses.

News of the audit came first in today’s Washington Post. Details subsequently were provided by auditors and a U.S. official in New Delhi.

Tridibes Basu, a partner at Price Waterhouse in the Indian capital, said the audit does not accuse Roman Catholic clergy of theft but the report says the relief program “was operated in an atmosphere whereby the commodities could be misused with little risk of detection.”

But some officials said they believe the report shows substantial evidence of widespread corruption and theft of the free American food.

“Quantities of food stored in warehouses did not tally with written records of food delivered to and distributed from these warehouses,” a U.S. official said. “Proper quantities of food were not distributed to beneficiaries.