UNISEF on Friday said in 2010 its internal financial oversight system uncovered irregularities in a school rehabilitation project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
It immediately froze funds to the project and launched a series of investigations. The investigations revealed that an estimated $4 million was lost when funds were misappropriated through over-billing for substandard repairs.
The investigation did not establish that UNICEF staff knowingly contributed to or benefited from the losses neither did it conclude that UNICEF was defrauded by others involved in overall project implementation but was not able to establish definitely who those other parties were.
Following the detection of the irregularities, additional safeguards were put in place to strengthen financial controls and oversight there.
The project of rehabilitating schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was undertaken in 2009 and 2010.
UNICEF has informed the relevant government authorities and donor governments of the irregularities and was looking into any possible recovery of the misappropriated funds.
