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Shabana Rehman says she wants to continue working with Born Free and denies that she asked anyone to go out with her dogs.
There has been a storm surrounding comedian and public polemicist Shabana Rehman (44) this week, after the government announced that it would cut support for “Born Free.”
The reason is that the foundation, which is going to “work against negative social control” in immigrant communities, must have used parts of the state support for purposes other than those for which they received support and lack good financial management, according to an Ernst & Young (EY) audit report.
Born Free has disputed the allegations and believes the report contains a number of errors and inaccuracies. On Tuesday, the foundation presented its response to the Directorate for Integration and Diversity.
Relationship: This is how the Rehman Foundation used the money
Born Free CEO Shaban Rehman says the whole case started with a warning, and her view is that whistleblowers, including those who warn against their own foundation, should be taken “very seriously.”
– But the person who is notified will also have the right to fight back, and I have not received that, Rehman said during Tuesday’s press conference.
Rehman tells VG that the foundation will now be run on a voluntary basis.
-We currently do not have funds and we continue with voluntary forces, he tells VG after the press conference.
– do not you recognize me
– You claim that you have not asked anyone to go for a walk with your dogs and clean your closet. Does that mean that what the complainants have said is not true?
– I do not recognize myself in what has appeared in the media. I chose not to comment on this for privacy reasons and am now speaking to the board about how we should handle this, Rehman says.
– He has presented himself to the board and documented how I organized the relief of my dogs, he adds.
The Born-Free leader says she was given access to the warning letter that was sent to IMDi in August three days ago.
LEADING FOUNDATION: Comedian and public polemicist Shabana Rehman.
What do you think is the worst when it comes to spending money? Because you say that when it comes to alvar & Young, there are several things that are reproduced incorrectly. What’s wrong with spending money that has been widely discussed?
The information has not come to light in relation to how we have used it in the projects. Everything has project accounting. This has not come to light.
Investigators: – The person warned must also be protected
The Born Free Foundation has asked attorney Anne Helsingeng, who has experience in leading investigations, notification cases, evaluations, and other fact-based investigations in the public and private sector, to review EY’s report.
She questions EY’s mission and believes that he appears as a hybrid between “a checkpoint and an investigation.”
The lawyer also raises questions about the legal security of the person being reprimanded, that is to say, the general director of the foundation, Shabana Rehman, has been properly attended to.
– It is serious to receive a written notification, also for a company that is subject to a certain public interest. It is not only the whistleblowers who should be protected, he says, adding that the person warned should also be protected, he says.
INVESTIGATIONS: Attorney Anne Helsingeng explains her review of Ernst & Young’s investigation report. Photo: Heiko Junge
She concludes that EY is wrong when the audit report stated that the accountant should be considered a “relative” of Rehman, which Helsingeng believes is wrong.
Posted by the Rehman Foundation: Deny all charges
– If there had been a correct use of that term, then EY would also have been “close” to all its clients, and I do not think that is correct, says the lawyer.
– My biggest complaint is that the report has a negative side. There does not appear to be an assessment of what is significant and what is not to include in the report, he continues.
The lawyer emphasizes that she cannot evaluate whether EY’s conclusions are correct or not, but has only evaluated the report itself.
– I cannot conclude that the report is unjustifiable, but at least it is not adequate to provide a broad view of the case, concludes the lawyer.
He sits on the Born Free board: – I warned Shabana
– Fantastic comments
Born Free’s Chairman of the Board, Jan Sverre Asker, opened the press conference by talking about the foundation and its purpose.
– The work has received fantastic comments. He’s drowned in the phase we’ve been in, says Asker.
– In fact, we do not recognize much of the criticism that has occurred as a result of the report that we have not delivered on our social mission. We have complied, we can document that we have complied, he continued at the press conference.
Asker says he has contacted IMDi and asked to speak at the investigation, as chairman of the board, but has not been heard.
– It is the case that there is no money that has been lost from the foundation. Documents have been provided for everything. It is not the case that alcohol has moved freely in the parties that the foundation has had. Here, the report is biased, says the chairman of the board indignantly.
He also mentions the much-discussed seminary trip to London, admitting that one could have chosen another destination, but argues that Rehman and his writing partner Zahid Ali went off to write the script for a school magazine.
Read also: Shabana Rehman and Zahid Ali worked on school magazines in spa hotels
– Then there is this stay at the spa: I have received documentation from the hotel, which shows that they have had conference rooms with access to the pool, but if they had a spa they would have to pay for it. They haven’t been to the spa, says the chairman of the board.
Requires payment
As VG has previously written, the foundation has demanded a suspended amount of NOK 3 million be paid. In a letter sent to IMDi to which VG has been given access, the foundation’s attorney, Harald F. Strandenæs, writes: It is required (…) that the grant for the second semester of 2020 is immediately made available to the foundation ”.
“Without financial means there is no contradiction”, the lawyer writes, and explains that the foundation cannot give an answer “No employees and, most of all, no funding for legal, auditing and investigative expertise. Naturally, such competition must be remunerated ».
– A series of errors
Rehman has previously explained that the foundation has received 5 million crowns from the state budget for 2018, 6 million last year and 3 million so far this year.
The second part of this year’s allocation, another three million crowns, has been stopped by the Integration and Diversity Directorate (IMDi), because the foundation, according to the indictment, has “used part of the state support it received for different purposes. to those for whom it receives support and lacks good financial management. “
– We believe that the report contains a number of errors, and that it reproduces our explanations incorrectly and poorly, Shabana Rehman told VG.
Shabana Rehman: Foundation formed by phone from Abid Raja
EY, which has mapped allegations of embezzlement, has found, among other things:
- Travel costs that EY claims may appear to be private in nature are charged to the foundation totaling NOK 55,000, which exceeds what is reasonable as an expense for a business purpose.
- General manager energy service subscriptions, which EY says appear to be private. The total value exceeds 50,000 kronor, but the subscriptions have not been fully reported.
- Purchase of Apple watches, headphones, Apple TV and a drone for a total of 28,000 crowns, which according to EY appears to be private.
- Goods and services that EY claims are purchased from close associates of Rehman. Born on Friday, among other things, during October 2018 he will have bought catering food for NOK 64,204 from a family member three times.
