Vatican absolved of one financial sin after revelation of data discrepancies
- Reference: 1610694370
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/01/15/austrac_vatican_correction/
- Source link:
In a [1]response [PDF] to a question put by a Senate Committee, AUSTRAC CEO Nicole Rose clarified the agency’s previous assessment that AU$2.3bn (US$1.78bn, £1.30bn) moved from the Holy See to Australia.
[2]
Questions about the transfer were asked in the context of ongoing strife within the Vatican, which in late 2020 re-organised its finance agencies after a scandal involving mismanagement of donated funds. Among the allegations raised was the improper funnelling of funds to assist the trial of Cardinal George Pell, an Australian convicted and jailed for child sexual abuse, but later acquitted on appeal.
Pell also served as the first Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, a post created in 2014 and which oversees Vatican finances and reports directly to the Pope.
[3]
Allegations that billions had flowed to Australia for no obvious reason fuelled ongoing speculation about the true state of Vatican finances.
On Wednesday, AUSTRAC doused the flames but covered itself and other un-named organisations in soot by revealing the actual quantity of Vatican-Australia money moves was AU$9.5m (US$7.3m, £5.3m).
Deus ex hackina: It took just 10 minutes to find data-divulging demons corrupting Pope's Click to Pray eRosary app [4]READ MORE
“The discrepancy in the data occurred due to a range of complexities and inconsistencies in some reporting received by AUSTRAC originating from international institutions, relating to incomplete geo-coding data,” AUSTRAC’s explanation states. “This led to AUSTRAC's system attributing a large series of transactions to the Vatican City State. AUSTRAC's quality assurance processes should have identified this issue.”
The Register understands that the misattribution may have seen transactions from all of Italy, or even other European nations, attributed to the Vatican.
“AUSTRAC has subsequently undertaken a detailed review of the data and put immediate additional quality assurance processes in place,” the response adds. The agency is also “… considering what further processes and governance changes should be implemented into the future.”
The Register has asked AUSTRAC what software it used to ingest and analyse the data and will update this story if the agency provides useful information.
[5]
The Holy See issued a [6]Communiqué that “acknowledges” the revelation of the true figure and explains that the lesser sum “is attributable, among other things, to a number of contractual obligations and the ordinary management of resources.” ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/01/15/austrac.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/storage&sz=300x250&tile=2&c=2YAF1x2RpyMkdy@QuoUBvRAAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/storage&sz=300x250%7C300x252%7C300x600&tile=3&c=33YAF1x2RpyMkdy@QuoUBvRAAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/18/vatican_erosary_insecure/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/storage&sz=300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251&tile=4&c=44YAF1x2RpyMkdy@QuoUBvRAAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2021/01/13/210113c.html
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Unproven Sin and undeclared Finances
I'm probably going to offend someone here, but will say it anyway...
In a time of accusations of 'deep state' and 'people being controlled by others', there is only one true Deep State here - the Church as a whole.
At a time that the church (and the RC is the biggest), is asking even more for money, I would wager the Vatican makes the finances of the Mafia look like pocket money.
The church has become the biggest fraud ever known, ruling through fear and turning so many of it's followers into people afraid of real life.
IT angle? The Popes tablet, (and I don't mean the ten commandments) and his bookmarked Naked Nuns site...
Re: Unproven Sin and undeclared Finances
The Catholic Church is an utterly abhorrent organisation. It leeches off the poor and/or gullible to add to its already enormous wealth, it now has a long history of abuse cases at its door, most of which it seems to have tried to cover up (goodness knows how many it has successfully converted up!), and it has wrecked countless lives over the centuries, and continues to do so on a daily basis.
No other organisation would have managed to get away with what they get up to - they make faecesbook look like an amateur - but sticking “god” in the strap line buys you a lot of blind eyes
Re: Unproven Sin and undeclared Finances
"I would wager the Vatican makes the finances of the Mafia look like pocket money."
I would wager that one of those things is a subset of the other of those things.
Excel??
See title
Not necessarily
GIGO
They had one job...
This is hopeless. What are they doing if they can't accurately report transactions? Why aren't they checking and re-checking intuitively doubtful amounts?
That pays for a lot of porn!
I wonder what the Pope's browser cache looks like... *Cough*