Decision Regarding Organizations Based in India
Post date: Jan 18, 2018 1:12:36 PM
NWN has decided to restrict funding for worthy programs in India based on extreme challenges getting funds to the organization. The following summary explains why. We view this as unfortunate and welcome any insight by others regarding this situation.
Dear ISRD
Thank you for notification of the resolution of receiving funding. I want to also inform you that based on the extreme difficulty of transferring funds to your organization through the Bank of Baroda, India, that this will be the only payment for the project that we will be able to send.
To summarize the experience from our perspective, consider:
The first installment of $3000 was sent by wire on September 5, 2017
After multiple attempts to confirm receipt of this first payment over the course of 6 weeks with no response from the bank, we sent a second wire on October 21, 2017 for $3000 and issued a recall of the first attempt
After additional multiple confirmation attempts, ISRD provided notice on November 3, 2017 that the bank had received the first payment but would not place it in your account because it had been recalled by US Bank for NWN. In effect it appears that your bank likely had possession of the funds for almost 2 months and intentionally withheld these funds, perhaps planning to eventually claim these funds for its own purposes as "unclaimed."
At this point NWN requested a recall of both payments based on concerns of possible malfeasance.
Despite the Bank of Baroda's statement on November 3, 2017 that the monies had been recalled and they had acknowledged possession of at least one payment, no monies were returned.
After weekly contacts with US Bank for the next 60 days including in person meetings, a new US Bank representative was assigned to the case in late December to further attempt collection of the missing funds..
On January 2, 2018, the first recalled funds ($3000) were finally received, less a $50 processing fee taken by Bank of Baroda
Upon NWN requesting information on the second missing wire regarding when this second payment would also be returned, US Bank was informed that Bank of Baroda had presented the funds to ISRD on October 23, 2017
NWN then received notice by ISRD on January 9, 2018 that Bank of Baroda had confirmed the inward transmission of the funds. Because this does not reconcile with the other statement from US Bank that the funds had been provided to ISRD on October 23, 2017, we interpret this to mean that ISRD's Bank of Baroda had received the second wire two days after the send date in October and again intentionally withheld the monies for its own possible purposes, with no intent to forward to your organization until additional scrutiny and demands were provided by US Bank.
To summarize, it took 4 months for any funds to successfully get to ISRD. At best, it would seem that the Bank of Baroda is disorganized and not entirely competent. At worst and more likely, the Bank of Baroda is operating a corrupt practice with intent to profit from 'uncollected' foreign wire deposits. It appears that the bank is willfully taking advantage of confusion they have generated, acting as if the funds have not been received, failing to notify the recipient of receipts, being unresponsive to inquiries to resolve the issues, and confounding the challenges associated with funders trying to manage transactions from overseas.
As a result of these experiences, we are therefore deciding to limit the funding for this project to this first payment. We regret this outcome for your organization's original plans. At the same time we are partially satisfied that at least 60% of the funds are now available for the project. We request an update on how ISRD will adjust the scope of the project accordingly. We will look forward to progress updates according to the original agreement. We hope that a silver lining might emerge from this trying process as the people of the community receive the original benefit that was intended. We still suggest an investigation on the process demonstrated by the Bank of Baroda, but leave that to ISRD's consideration.
With regrets and hope
Marty Waters
NWN