December 12, 2014 - 11:26 AMT
Audit clears UK's biggest Islamic charity of terror funding claim

Britain's biggest Islamic charity says an audit of its activities in West Bank has found no evidence to support accusations it has funded terrorism, BBC News reports.

Islamic Relief Worldwide denied claims made first by Israel and later the United Arab Emirates and hired leading auditors to review its West Bank work. The charity works with international organizations and governments, such as UNICEF and the World Food Programme.

Israel has not responded so far.

Islamic Relief Worldwide works in more than 40 countries. It started 30 years ago in Birmingham, where it was founded by a group of post-graduate students.

The UK government, through its international development arm DfID, gave Islamic Relief £3.2mln in 2013.The kind of work the charity does ranges from health and education projects, to help with orphans.

Earlier this year Israel claimed the charity was using its donations to fund the Palestinian group Hamas, which it and others sees as a terrorist organization.

Islamic Relief suspended its work in the occupied West Bank - where the allegations were focused on - and commissioned the audit. It says the audit, carried out over a few days in September this year, shows "absolutely no evidence" of any link to terrorism.

The audit saw projects run by the charity visited, the organization’s paperwork and procedures were examined, and staff and recipients of aid spoken to.

The report does throw up some minor accounting and procedural errors, but finds no evidence that funds have been diverted to Hamas or anyone else. It also details a thorough screening process of staff, donors, and recipients of aid.

The charity is not publicly saying which company they paid to do the audit - but they do say it is a leading global audit firm.

Islamic Relief says because of what it calls the "sensitivities in the region" it has agreed with that firm not to identify it.

The UK's Charity Commission, which regulates charities, is understood to have received a copy of the report. It says Islamic Relief has done everything it should in keeping them informed of the Israeli allegations and its inquiry.

The Disasters Emergency Committee, which brings together 13 leading UK charities to deal with acute crises, said in a written statement that it "has considered the independent audit report which reviewed Islamic Relief's operations in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories".

Israel's shutting down of the charity in the West Bank has led to its £5mln program in that area ending. The charity say that has had an impact on the 78,000 people it had been helping.

Meanwhile, there is a wider concern among some development agencies concerning the work of other charities and NGOs in areas where proscribed groups are operating.

Workers in the field fear charities could be forced to limit their work in places like Somalia, Syria and Iraq, because of government and corporate fears that money destined for humanitarian projects in those areas could fall into the wrong hands.