NGO accused of faking documents

NGO accused of faking documents

Employees of the Visayan Forum (VF), an anti-trafficking organization, allegedly devoted Saturdays to producing fake receipts that justified up to P210 million in supposedly misused donations from the United States Agency for International Development. Former VF employees who had turned witnesses for the National Bureau of Investigation said they fabricated receipts to comply with auditor requirements. The witnesses said VF employees used scotch tape and other materials to tamper with the receipts and “fill in the gaps” in funds that were unaccounted for or still unliquidated. VF lawyer Laurence Arroyo however pointed to the VF bookkeeper and said she faked the receipts to cover up her own failure to liquidate expenses. The NBI however countered the falsification of about 35,000 documents required a team effort and could not have been done by one person alone. USAID has filed fraud charges against VF, hailed for being at the forefront of the campaign against human trafficking.

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