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Up to $41B in World Bank climate finance unaccounted for, Oxfam finds

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Re: Up to $41B in World Bank climate finance unaccounted for, Oxfam finds

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remind me what happens to a US citizen if our personal finances "struggle with fraud" and unaccountability to the tune of 40% when it comes to the IRS?

The money is not actually missing*. Oxfam attempted to add up all the numbers in various PDFs linked on the World Bank's website and got a total that's less than the headline figure in the World Bank's press releases. (See the actual report at https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10... ) Some of that is probably missing data and some of it reflects that headlines like "USA donates 1 billion" don'…

> they didn't save all their receipts and so on

This analogy explains well but it's missing the important bit: private citizens don't have any requirement to save receipts. Charities and businesses do have that requirement.

Re: Up to $41B in World Bank climate finance unaccounted for, Oxfam finds

#122
post #38

> Activists are calling for the Global North to provide at least 5 trillion U.S. dollars annually in public finance to the Global South as a down payment on their climate debt to those least responsible for climate change but most affected by it. Huh? I'm pretty sure the Global South produces significantly more carbon emissions than the Global North. Like double. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong?) From a quick…

[deleted]

Re: Up to $41B in World Bank climate finance unaccounted for, Oxfam finds

#123

> In October [2021], David Beasley, head of the U.N. food agency, tweeted a cheeky congratulations to Musk for reportedly earning $36 billion in a single day. "1/6 of your one-day increase would save 42 million lives that are knocking on famine's door," he wrote. > A few days later, Musk tweeted: "If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and…

Kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy on his part, isn't it? $6B wouldn't solve world hunger, but it'd put a dent in it, and the size of that dent probably scales with how well the money is managed.

Re: Up to $41B in World Bank climate finance unaccounted for, Oxfam finds

#124

I wish this was a link to the original Oxfam audit. It's strange to me that an audit would say that there's somewhere between $23 and $41 billion missing. If the audit really knew what it was doing, wouldn't it have a more precise number What is unaccounted for? That said, it's high-time for organizations like the World Bank to have fully transparent finances. Like, I should be able to go to a website and see where e…

> It's strange to me that an audit would say that there's somewhere between $23 and $41 billion missing. Audits have degrees of certainty; an opinion may be unqualified, meaning the records are spotless, qualified, meaning there are issues but the records are trustworthy, and adversarial, meaning the records are inaccurate and do not represent the actual financial status. If the records are questionable, it will usua…

>Money comes and goes without accounting meeting financial standards. That does not strictly mean that the money has been embezzled

Coincidentally, the Liberal Democrat Party in Japan just lost their majority (and subsequently very likely the government) today due to widespread embezzlement and tax evasion.

Always argue for absolute transparency of public monies, there is no justifiable reason public monies have to be kept secret.

Re: Up to $41B in World Bank climate finance unaccounted for, Oxfam finds

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Money comes and goes without accounting meeting financial standards. That does not strictly mean that the money has been embezzled, only that the DOD and World Bank are unable to demonstrate that it hasn't been. Can you think of a better place to embezzle? Its risk-free without any accounting standards. 100% that embezzling is taking place and at a large scale.

Given that the DOD is the largest employer in the USA at nearly a million people, there's almost certainly some small amount going on at a minimum.

Walmart alone employs 1.6 million people: https://corporate.walmart.com/about/location-facts

Re: Up to $41B in World Bank climate finance unaccounted for, Oxfam finds

#126
post #97
post #38

> Activists are calling for the Global North to provide at least 5 trillion U.S. dollars annually in public finance to the Global South as a down payment on their climate debt to those least responsible for climate change but most affected by it. Huh? I'm pretty sure the Global South produces significantly more carbon emissions than the Global North. Like double. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong?) From a quick…

We export our pollution to them...

If we stopped exporting our pollution to them, then their economies would collapse (because the pollution is caused by export-producing industries).

So isn't the North already paying the South for this pollution?

Re: Up to $41B in World Bank climate finance unaccounted for, Oxfam finds

#128
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Global South" doesn't mean literally countries in the Southern hemisphere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_North_and_Global_South

I know? I am using that page as a reference.

> I am using that page as a reference.

Where? I don't know if your comment had the actual lists of countries in the global north and south previously but it doesn't have it now.

In any case, your analysis is incomplete. It's missing per-capita emissions and cumulative historical emissions.

Re: Up to $41B in World Bank climate finance unaccounted for, Oxfam finds

#129
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's insane the way that browsers shit the bed if there's any issue with the certificate. Just throw in a big red exclamation point on top of the little padlock icon next to the URL bar - it's literally only there to inform the user about any potential security issues. Use it and (unless the site is known to be or obviously malicious) load the bloody page. Honestly, it's absolutely insane that the browser misrepresen…

I don't know why my bank's website's got this red button, but I really need to transfer my funds right now, so lemme just mash whatever button I need to mash to get to the website. Ugh, why are computers so dumb! Seems fine.

Well that seems "obviously malicious", feel free to re-read my comment if you're feeling less illiterate than before.

Re: Up to $41B in World Bank climate finance unaccounted for, Oxfam finds

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of that is your ethics vs you not having the opportunity to?

If you run a business or consult, there's a ton of opportunity. The amount of grey area advice I received from my ex-CPA taught me that there is ample opportunity there. This is also why she's my ex-CPA.

What's a CPA?
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