- Report suggest up to 50 percent of food aid skimmed off by contractors
- Top U.N. official in Somalia says allegation is "completely misleading"
- Somalia Monitoring Group report also claimed aid diverted for military uses
(CNN) -- The top United Nations humanitarian official in Somalia has fired back at a report that suggests food aid is being skimmed off by contractors as "a cost of doing business" in the war-torn nation, an allegation he calls "completely misleading."
"This is far from the case," Mark Bowden, the U.N. resident coordinator for Somalia, wrote in a response to the report.
"While U.N. humanitarian organizations recognize that they are working in a complex environment where a war economy has predominated for many years, rather than succumbing with an implied spirit of fatalism to this environment, U.N. agencies and other humanitarian organizations have introduced new measures and approaches to ensure effective management of humanitarian assistance."
A March 10 report by the world body's Somalia Monitoring Group found that humanitarian aid was being diverted to military uses in the conflict, and that some Somali contractors hired by aid agencies were channeling profits into armed opposition groups.
One part of the report suggested as much as 45 to 50 percent of World Food Programme shipments may have been skimmed off by transport companies, local distributors and the armed groups that control the districts in which they operate.
"Under such circumstances the aid community has come to accept a certain level of risk, loss, theft and diversion as 'the cost of doing business' in Somalia," the report states.
Bowden's response, addressed to the Security Council and obtained Thursday by CNN, states that World Food Programme officials believe the 45-50 percent figure stems from "hearsay and commonly held perceptions."
The report was not "adequately documented," and aid agencies have stepped up efforts to ensure that shipments are reaching impoverished Somalis in recent months, he wrote.
"These actions have been undertaken by humanitarian organizations in recognition of the extremely challenging operating environment with which we are continually confronted and in recognition of our responsibilities to effectively assist vulnerable populations in Somalia and our accountability to our donors," Bowden wrote.
The WFP plans to feed some 2.5 million people in Somalia in 2010, the group said on its Web site.
In a statement dated March 11, the WFP said "it would not engage in any new work with three transport contractors named in a report from the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia, which alleged they were involved in arms-trading."
"The integrity of our organization is paramount and we will be reviewing and investigating each and every issue raised by this report," said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran in the March 11 statement.
"WFP stands ready to offer full cooperation with any independent inquiry into its work in Somalia."
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