World Vision sends letter of demand to Ratnajeevan Hoole

26 January 2022 12:02 am Views - 1678

World Vision Lanka (Guarantee) Limited has sent a letter of demand to Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole and his daughter following an article he has written making references to World Vision Lanka (Guarantee) Limited.
Writing through its attorneys Nithi Murugesu and Associates, World Vision in its letters of demand to Mr. Hoole and his daughter Ms. Elilini Hoole has said that some contents referring to the organisation in the article were false, malicious and were defamatory. 

Referring to the article written by Mr. Hoole which was published in Daily Mirror on December 11 under the headline “A Hearing for Rev. Gnanasara Thero’s Claims” World Vision stated that the portion referring the orgenisation has suggested that the project conducted has contravened regulations and created a conjecture on the credibility of World Vision. 
Mr. Hoole in his article referring to his daughter had stated, “My own daughter was a high-up at World Vision. An Anglican Bishop was on the Board. When my daughter came across US$ 2 million claimed to have gone into putting up a plant and she found nothing there, she told her boss and quietly moved on. Her boss got the relevant company to put up the missing plant without any billing. It is one of the few happy stories although no one was punished”. 

In response to this World Vision stated that in its 44 year history there has never been a situation where it has commissioned a plant to the value of USD two millions. 
It further stated that there are also certain measures in place for better compliance and transparency of usage of funds. Among them are, the grants/funding received are either subjected to mandatory external audit and/or it is monitored directly by donors through monthly/quarterly progress reports, risk based audits are conducted by World Vision International auditors; it follows stringent procurement/finance policies and procedures in order to ensure transparency and compliance of the donor funds; projects are implemented with the action plan approved by District Secretariat and are implemented with stakeholders including the government, with a joint monitoring process and implementation plan with achievements are submitted to the NGO Secretariat each quarter for approval.

World Vision reiterated that it was practically not possible to carry out any project “without any billing” surpassing the above mentioned measures and it has a robust whistle blower policy for people to report anonymously of any misappropriation, fraud, corruption, harassment, conflict of interest, bribery, etc., and that all employees are trained on this matter with refresher courses conducted regularly. 
In its letter of demand World Vision noted that its financial statements have been audited by two of the four leading Audit firms in the world, namely Price Waterhouse Coopers and Ernst and Young. No fraud or misappropriation of any sum whatsoever let alone an alleged USD 2,000,000/= plant has ever been identified/reported.