UK investigates PwC for covering for Palestinian terror group
The decision came after UK Lawyers for Israel complained that PwC firms audited two Palestinian NGOs linked to the PFLP, breaching the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
By LAHAV HARKOVThe logo of accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia(photo credit: REUTERS/MAXIM SHEMETOV)
The United Kingdom will investigate ties between international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the government announced Tuesday.The decision came after UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) complained that PwC firms audited two Palestinian NGOs linked to the PFLP, breaching the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.The UK National Contact Point (NCP) for those guidelines, part of the Department for International Trade, determined that “the issues raised in the complaint… merit further examination.”UKLFI director Caroline Turner said: “PwC may have contributed to violations of the human, economic and civil rights of terror victims, diverting support from the Palestinian citizens who should be benefiting from the aid of donors, and misleading taxpaying citizens of the donor nations.”PwC Palestine, which has offices in Ramallah and Gaza, provided financial audit services to two Palestinian organizations, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) and the Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P), in 2014-2018.Both organizations had ties to the PFLP at that time, UKLFI said, adding that they employed and offered support to PFLP members and enabled the terrorist group’s funding. For example, two former finance directors of UAWC, Abdul Razaq Farraj and Samer Arbid, who worked for the organization at the time of the PwC audits, are on trial for the 2019 bombing attack that killed 17-year-old Rina Schnerb and wounded her father and brother, UKLFI said.PwC failed to highlight those links or try to mitigate their impact, as required by the OECD guidelines, UKLFI said. The accounting firm, which still audits DCI-P, argued in response that there is no evidence the NGOs promote terrorist activities.The UK NCP said the issues in the complaint “are material and substantiated.”Turner said she has evidence that UAWC and DCI-P “benefited from PwC conferring legitimacy on their international fundraising activities” in that it “provided them with confidence that their money was being used for legitimate objectives and not to facilitate terrorism.”Recent UAWC donors include the Netherlands and the European Union.
