The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which published articles on the Adani Group last year, is now under the scanner over its funding from the US government agencies. French  newspaper ‘Mediapart’ in an investigative piece published on Monday has revealed about its ties with the US government and certain vested stakeholders.

“While the OCCRP does indicate on its website that it receives funding from the US Department of State, and notably from the US Agency for International Development, USAID, it conceals the extent of the funding and the strings attached to it from its media partners, journalists and the wider public. The US government financing is never mentioned in OCCRP-produced articles,” the French newspaper mentioned.

It mentioned OCCRP receives a huge share of funding from certain stakeholders from United States including US Agency for International Development (USAID). “The OCCRP has omitted from its official history the role played by the US government in its creation, only mentioning the funding by the UN. Sullivan responds to that by underlining that the UN Democracy Fund payment was indeed the first that the NGO received,” Mediapart stated.

Since its inception, OCCRP has received at least $47 million from the US government, $14 million from European countries (Britiain, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Slovakia and France) and 1.1 million from the European Union. “The OCCRP appears uncomfortable about the scale of US funding, as the amounts are not published on the NGO’s website,” Mediapart noted further.

According to Mediapart, OCCRP has funded a programme which uses investigations by OCCRP to prompt sanction procedures and judicial probes.

“The Department of State also gave 173,324 dollars to the OCCRP for a mission of “uncovering and combatting Venezuelan corruption” – Venezuela’s autocratic president Nicolás Maduro is a high-profile enemy of the US,” the French newspaper revealed.

In the same article Mediapart stated for a journalistic organisation to lead such activities upon the initiative and with the funding of the US, even for a just cause, raises important ethical questions.

The revelations made by Mediapart come at a time when industrialist Gautam Adani is in the thick of storm over dubious allegations of bribery in US which has rocked the Parliament since day one of ensuing Winter Session.