Mayday Rescue Foundation

The Mayday Rescue Foundation is a not-for-profit foundation registered in the Netherlands specialised in training, equipping, and assisting volunteer emergency first responders in areas of conflict, instability, and natural disaster, primarily Syrian Civil War affected areas. Its mission is "saving lives, strengthening communities." It was established by James Le Mesurier, a former British Army officer, in 2014, and currently operates primarily in the Middle East through offices in Turkey and Jordan.[1][2] Mayday Rescue was initially headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.[3]

Activities

The Mayday Rescue website states that its purpose is to "partner with communities that are entering, enduring, or emerging from conflict or natural disasters by providing training and equipment, advocacy and outreach, and organisational capacity building for grassroots emergency response groups at the local, regional and national levels."[1]

Since it was established, the Mayday Rescue Foundation's primary role has been as an implementing partner for international support to Syria Civil Defence (SCD, the "White Helmets"), for whom it has provided training, equipment and mentorship funded by countries including the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany; the other implementing partner delivering aid to SCD is Chemonics, which delivers a comparable amount of support to the White Helmets on behalf of USAID.[4][5]

Mayday Rescue reports that between 2014 and 2018 it received funding of $127 million, $19 million of which came from non-government sources.[6]

Mayday Rescue is a separate organisation from both SCD and The Syria Campaign, a UK-based human rights organisation which advocates for protection of civilians in the Syrian conflict.[7][8] The Syria Campaign maintains an independent fundraising website, www.whitehelmets.org, which raises money to support SCD.[9] However Mayday Rescue and SCD headquarters shared the same building, on the same floor until about 2017, and share meetings. Donors say it is difficult to distinguish the headquarters operation of the two organisations.[6]

As of 2019, Mayday Rescue was assessing possibilities for Civil Defence-based stabilisation programmes in countries other than Syria, such as Iraq and Yemen.[10]

Fraud allegation

Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant reported that three days before James Le Mesurier's suicide on 11 November 2019, he had reported a fraud at the Mayday Rescue Foundation to its donor countries, offering to resign from the foundation. This followed a Dutch accountant's visit to the Mayday Rescue office in Istanbul, which uncovered false receipts after an employee admitted she and a colleague had written the wrongly dated receipts on the instructions of Le Mesurier.[11][12]

A forensic inquiry of Mayday Rescue’s accounts by Grant Thornton subsequently took place instigated by donor countries, as most of its financial records were missing; a summary report of which de Volkskrant's journalists had seen. Le Mesurier had borrowed a large amount from the foundation to pay for his wedding in 2018, and cash intended for other purposes had been used to pay bonuses to senior staff including himself and his wife. The new administrator, Cor Vrieswijk, called salaries of senior staff "excessive", in some cases €26,000 per month, although these had been consented to by donor countries. The original matter reported by Le Mesurier, a payment of $50,000 to himself, was found to be the result of a "misunderstanding" and not fraud.[11][13]

Other criticism included that here was no supervisory board, so directors could decide their own salaries, and that the non-profit organisation had commercial branches in Turkey and Dubai. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs had ended its support to Mayday Rescue in 2018 over financial management concerns.[11]

Mayday Rescue’s new administrator stated in early 2020 that the foundation would be closed down within a few months. Germany is re-claiming almost €50,000, and the Netherlands is holding back a final grant of over €57,000.[11][14]

In a legal action brought by the new administrator against the suspended financial director, it was disclosed that in 2018 27% and in 2019 33% of donations were spent on foundation costs.[11][14]

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References
  1. "Home | Mayday Rescue". www.maydayrescue.org. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  2. Bryan Schatz (10 December 2014). "The Most Dangerous Job in the World: Syria's Elite Rescue Force". Men's Journal. Archived from the original on 5 November 2016. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  3. "Mayday Rescue". Mayday Rescue. Archived from the original on 5 October 2014.
  4. "Our Partners". Syria Civil Defence. 15 February 2016. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  5. "Fearless Syrian Women Volunteer To Pick Up The Pieces After Bombings". International Business Times. 2016-02-04. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  6. Review of the monitoring systems of three projects in Syria: AJACS, White Helmets and NLA (PDF). Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) (Report). Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. August 2018. p. 23-24,43. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  7. "A Syrian first responder's last call to action". Devex. 2016-08-23. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  8. "Home - The Syria Campaign". thesyriacampaign.org. Archived from the original on 29 January 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  9. Campaign, The Syria. "Meet the heroes saving Syria". www.whitehelmets.org. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  10. "Mayday Rescue". Devex. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  11. Ana van Es; Anneke Stoffelen (17 July 2020). "Founder of Foundation behind White Helmets Admits Fraud". de Volkskrant. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  12. "Accountant bracht 'misbruik' donorgeld aan het licht bij Nederlandse stichting achter Witte Helmen". Accountancy Vanmorgen (in Dutch). 17 July 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  13. Beemsterboer, Toon (17 July 2020). "Stichting achter Witte Helmen misbruikte donaties Syrië-hulp". NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  14. "Weißhelme in Syrien: Deutschland fordert Geld zurück". RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (in German). 30 July 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
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