Citipointe removed Rosa and Chita
from their family illegally in 2008. The church refuses to produce MOUs that
prove it removed the girls in accordance with Cambodian law. Citipointe's
funding partner, the Global Development Group (GDG), refuses to provide the
parents,Chanti and Chhork, with copies of the MOUs. The Australian Council for International
Development, whose job it is to monitor the activities of Australian NGOs,
refuses to ask Citipointe or the GDG to produce the MOUs.
The Hon Julie Bishop
Minister for Foreign
Affairs
House of Representatives,
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
6th August 2014
Dear Minister
Tonight, on the ABC, (HEAD FIRST) there will be
another expose of the orphanage scams rife in Cambodia. I wonder how many such
scams will need to be exposed before the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) or
the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) does or says
something about Australians involved in such scams?
The silence from your office suggests
that no-one at any level within DFAT - up to and including yourself - cares one
way or another if Australian-based NGOs are stealing the children of poor
Cambodian families. How else to explain the refusal of DFAT or ACFID to ask
either Citipointe church or the Global Development Group to provide documentary
evidence of the legality of its actions in removing Rosa and Chita from their
family in 2008?
It may be that within DFAT and ACFID
there is, deep down, a lack of concern for the welfare of poor Cambodian
families whose children are effectively stolen by Australian-based NGOs.
However, even if no such empathy exists, surely it must be of concern to you
and your parliamentary colleagues that tax-deductible Australian charity
dollars are being funneled through the Global Development Group to
Australian-based NGOs in breach of both Cambodian law and the ACFID Code of
Conduct!
The Global Development Group does not
conduct adequate assessment or monitoring of its funding partners (as required
by the ACFID Code of Conduct) and yet charges between 5% and 9% to the NGOs it
provides funding to! In the case of Citipointe church’s ‘SHE Rescue Home’ there
has been, this past six years, zero monitoring and assessing by GDG. Indeed,
GDG has been complicit, through its funding, in the illegal removal of children
from their families.
Another NGO funded by GDG, with many
questions to answer regarding its adherence to the ACFID Code of Conduct, is the
Cambodian Children’s Fund (CCF). Getting Scott Neeson, Executive Director of
CCF, to answer pertinent questions is impossible so I have put some of
these questions to Mr Bob Alexander, CEO of CCF:
My experience to date with DFAT is
that no questions will be asked of NGOs taking advantage of their Australian
tax-deductible status, and that the status quo will be maintained until such
time as there is a Somaly Mam-style scandal or expose - at which point
DFAT and ACFID spin-doctors will go to work distancing both bodies from any
knowledge that such scams were occurring.
Please, Minister, pick up the phone
and ask Geoff Armstrong at the Global Development Group to provide copies of
the MOUs and any other documents he believes gave GDG's funding partner, Citipointe
church, the right to remove children from their families in 2008.
best wishes
James Ricketson
