Study finds misuse of disaster relief aid

The
Zorig Foundation, in cooperation with the Open Society Institute, has completed
a study of how the Government has utilized all the aid received from international
organizations for natural disaster relief between 2006 and 2008. The study was
restricted to Ulaanbaatar city, and Selenge and Tuv aimags. Selenge had the
most number of disasters and accidents while Tuv was taken as representative of
the 10 central aimags.

In general, the study
finds that money was spent without any clear purpose, and with erratic
effectiveness. The affected people could and should have benefited more. Senior
officials of the State Emergency Board are said to have misrepresented the extent
of damage, submitted erroneous estimates of necessary relief, and diverted
money from both the State budget and foreign aid capital to buy things of
doubtful or no use. This was possible as there was no control over or
monitoring of how they worked and also because the affected citizens did not
know their rights. The Government does not allow people to access any data
relating to how aid amounts are spent.

Mongolia has received altogether USD424.36 million in aid and donation since
2005. It appears only USD0.44 million was spent in 2006 on disaster management.
MNT12.17 billion, MNT12.01 billion, MNT14.73 billion, and MNT356.2 million was
spent from the state budget on disaster relief in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009
respectively.