{"id":156157,"date":"2016-01-22T02:08:18","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T20:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=156157"},"modified":"2016-01-22T03:31:29","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T22:01:29","slug":"idrc-had-raised-questions-about-ices-financial-practices-long-before-the-saravanathan-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/idrc-had-raised-questions-about-ices-financial-practices-long-before-the-saravanathan-allegations\/","title":{"rendered":"IDRC Had Raised Questions About ICES Financial Practices Long Before The Saravanathan Allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Colombo Telegraph investigation has revealed that, in 2009, that is 7 years before Dr. Muttkrishana Saravananthan\u2019s allegations<\/span><\/a> leveled at the Colombo think tank and NGO\u00a0the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES), concerning financial improprieties, the same Canadian research funder, IDCR, had in an internal review come to similar conclusions as Saravananthan.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>

Dr. Navsharan Singh<\/p><\/div>\n

In a May, 2009 report, entitled, \u201c Evaluation of Peace, Conflict and Development (PCD) Research Support in Countries and Regions affected by Violent Conflict.<\/span><\/a>\u201d Commissioned by IDRC, Dr. Mark Hoffman, an independent reviewer of the Brussles based consultancy \u201cchannel research,\u201d who is now with the London School of Economics, had this to say about two ICES research projects funded by IDRC. Noting that, there were \u201cvery favorable comments in the project planning documents regarding ICES as the partner institution,\u201d Hoffman goes on to note, what he found:<\/p>\n

\u201c The reality seems to have been otherwise\u2026 It transpired that institutionally it lacked tight administrative and financial management processes. Its capacity for financial management was deemed by PCD\/IDRC staff to be \u2018surprisingly weak given the amount of funding it was receiving and controlling\u2019. Senior researchers on the two projects noted that the institute would regularly use funds from one project to cover costs on another. Some of these problems were known to PCD\/IDRC as it sent in a financial controler to provide assistance and staff training in the area of financial control. It is clear that as a result of the revelations, ICES\u2019s reputation within Sri Lanka has been tarnished and senior staff are slowly disengaging from it, which over the medium term may undermine its research credentials. While most of the field research on the post-tsunami project had been completed before these problems could adversely affect the research, it did encounter difficulties in making timely payments to some researchers because of the inadequacies in ICES\u2019s financial management practices.\u201d (p.28-9, Hoffman Report).<\/p>\n

While IDRC own internal review \u2013 and this document is part of IDRC\u2019s public web archive<\/span><\/a> \u2013 had this to say about ICES more than 7 years ago, that Canadian institution still provided funding to the ICES for a Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) program project, which Dr. Sarvananthan has now alleged<\/span><\/a> was rife with financial improprieties.<\/p>\n

Further, Colombo Telegraph has learned that Dr. Navsharan Singh, was an authorizing IDRC official in both programs, spanning a period of 6 years.<\/p>\n

The question that needs to be asked in the public interest is this: \u201cIf IDRC, as it did, knew from internal evaluation, that ICES\u2019 financial practices were suspect, why did it fund fresh projects at ICES, with out rigorous financial oversight? These are questions raised by Colombo Telegraph on behalf of Citizens of Canada and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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