UFF loses

Dagens Nyheter, Sweden, March 19, 2002:

By Juan Flores and Nuri Kino

UFF loses its 90-account //authorized account type for charity
organizations only, a guarantee that they meet certain criteria//. The
organization has mismanaged their finances to such extent that the gifts
from the Swedish people never arrive at the real aim for the fund, but
are used to balance the debts of the organization, says the SFI //a
Swedish authority for control of fundraising projects//.

There has been much turbulence around UFF since DN exposed its
operations late December last year. More and more Swedish cities now
question the yellow second-hand clothes containers placed everyone in
the streets - and now SFI, the Swedish autority for control of
fundraising projects, finally has decided to discontinue the authorized
fundraising account for the organization.

- We claim that they haven't handled the finances in the way expected by
a holder of a 90-account. The funds they raise will have to go to paying
back their debts, something that people donating money and clothes to
UFF know nothing about, says Kim sterberg, the new administrative
director at SFI.

The 90-account functions as a kind of guarantee that fundraising
organizations meet certain criteria. Now UFF are no longer allowed to
use a 90-account or display the SFI logotype, which the organization has
made frequent use of in order to give credit to its operation.

- That is a sound decision, says Erik Zachrison, secretary-general of
FRII, the trade association for all fundraising organizations, which for
a long time has denied UFF admission.

- There has been many complaints about UFF as regards unethical
behaviour. And a number of times there has been proof of UFF being
negligent with the handling of cash.

As revealed by Dagens Nyheter around the turn of the year, UFF has a
debt of more than 4 million SEK and much points to the organization
having made a system of not paying it. The organization are subject to
more than 130 records for non-payment of debt and it has for years been
carried on at the verge of bankruptcy, despite the fact that the clothes
donated by the Swedish people - adding up to an amazing total of 8,900
tons a year - are sold at multimillion amounts in Eastern Europe by
UFF's sister organizations.

In other words, UFF sells the clothes cheaply to the UFF organizations
abroad, which in their turn make the big profits. Swedish UFF
consequently refuses to account for the profit from the sale of Swedish
clothes to other countries. Dagens Nyheter was also able to show
documents proving that UFF is governed by the Danish sect the Teachers
Group, which runs the so called Tvind movement.

However, SFI has only looked at the financial aspects and the fact that
UFF has delayed handing in the annual reports to SFI.

- When UFF has paid their debts they are welcome to apply for a
90-account once again, Kim sterberg continues. Trond Narvestad,
president of UFF, says that he quite understands the decision.

- The reason given to us, that we presently are in a phase during which
we clean up our finances and that we won't be able to donate to the
projects, sounds reasonable to us.

Narvestad claims that the situation is a result of UFF earlier having
paid too much money to the projects in relation to what the organization
has collected.