President Donald Trump told the U.N. General Assembly this week that the U.N. was not doing enough to tackle the world’s problems. He wants his Board of Peace to take up that mantle instead, hoping to make a splash on the sidelines of the U.N.’s biggest week of the year.

Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner headlined a Board of Peace meeting on Wednesday in a hotel located a dozen blocks from the U.N. to update current members — and persuade holdouts to join their vision for rebuilding Gaza, starting with a new $2.45 billion recovery program.

But there are few public records of just how much money has been received by the body, how funds are being spent or what specific relief actions it has funded.

There is no public budget or information on how large the staff is. The board recently started using offices inside the former Washington headquarters of the U.S. Institute of Peace, which was gutted and renamed for Trump last year.

At the event on Wednesday, officials promised more transparency and flexibility for donors.

The six-month plan they unveiled solicited funding for 66 proposed projects in Gaza, allowing countries to pick and choose which efforts they want to support.

The level of specificity in the new road map attempts to provide an answer to criticisms that the Board of Peace would become a slush fund for Trump and his business allies.

The U.N. estimates that it will require $71.4 billion over the coming decade to rebuild critical infrastructure and support economic recovery.

Many of the projects in Gaza the board proposed would normally be done by United Nations agencies and international organizations funded by the U.N. 

But Board of Peace officials insist that their cooperation with the U.N. has been streamlined, allowing more efficiency and eliminating obstacles the U.N. faced in delivering aid.

“We’re building something that is really a platform to enable the Palestinian people in Gaza to finally focus on improving their livelihoods and improving their lives, and for those who want to live in peace, to give them a chance to do so,” Kushner said. “Hopefully, this will show the Israelis that there is hope for peace and coexistence.”

He promised to deliver on the board’s rebuilding promises — if it ever gets started.

“When we do it, we’ll move with real certainty and speed, and we’ll be able to make a big, big impact,” Kushner vowed.

Trump praised the board in his speech to the General Assembly, saying the board had contributed “billions and billions of dollars to relief.”

“That money goes right to the source, right where they need it, and they desperately need it,” said Trump, who also named himself chairman for life of the Board of Peace, according to a charter adopted in January. “They want to see the humanitarian thing happen properly.”

But the board’s plan hinges on a breakthrough in the current stalemate between Israel and Hamas.

The relief efforts — and most of the funds — have stalled as Israel continues striking Gaza to take out Hamas officials, increasing the danger for aid deliveries. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the U.S.-backed plan to disarm Hamas announced in late July, and questions swirl around the board’s finances.

It’s unclear how much of the $18 billion initially pledged by the U.S. and other countries has officially been paid out and by whom — or where the money is being kept. Board of Peace officials said that the organization had only called on $280 million so far and that the slow procurement of funds is by design.

The board hasn’t asked donors to send in most of the funds, said the board’s high representative, former Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov. “We don’t need money sitting in a bank account until we’re able to actually have the plans for the delivery,” Mladenov said in response to questions about the financial transparency of the board.

The board oversees the U.N.-created body — the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, or NCAG — that is tasked with the reconstruction of Gaza, officials said.

NCAG officials at the event on Wednesday said the board had developed a financial mechanism that was developed by the World Bank for donors to see where their donations were going.

“We resorted to them, saying we need your help, and the idea is to have a robust financial management system that is accountable for our partners and our people,” NCAG Finance Commissioner Bashir Rayyes said. “We need to be also accountable to the Gazans.”

Another source familiar with U.S. contributions, who was granted anonymity to describe sensitive decisions, said the State Department had made available $1 billion redirected from previously appropriated humanitarian and disaster funding to bypass congressional notification requirements.

The U.S. announced an initial $10 billion commitment to fund the board, but Board of Peace officials would not confirm exactly how much had been transferred.

In late July, the State Department notified Congress that it would spend $200 million on peacekeeping operations for the board’s International Stabilization Force, according to two U.S. officials. The department sent a separate notification to Congress for $50 million, but later rescinded the transfer after congressional scrutiny.

“We are committed to the full implementation of the President’s historic 21-point peace plan, of which the ISF is a key component,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement. “Because of the President, a massive global coalition has been assembled through the Board of Peace, and the hostages have been released. We are encouraged by the steady progress being made by the Board of Peace.”

Democrats in Congress are asking for more information about the board’s finances.

Last month, Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs committee, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking member of the House Judiciary committee, sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding answers about the board’s management, bank accounts and contracting process.

“The fact that the Trump Administration, with your help, is attempting to transfer taxpayer dollars to the Board of Peace, an opaque organization primed for corruption, raises serious concerns that public funds could be once again misused by the President and his family and friends,” Meeks and Raskin wrote to Rubio.

The U.N. Security Council voted to authorize the creation of the board last year. But the fact that Trump asserted himself as its lifetime chair and expanded the board’s scope beyond Gaza has deterred most countries from formally joining. Twenty-eight countries have joined the board so far.

Wednesday’s event was designed to change the minds of countries hesitant to be associated with the board, a senior NCAG official told MS NOW, and initial responses indicated more nations may formally join or contribute funding.

The Board of Peace has maintained that full reconstruction and rebuilding of Gaza would not begin until Hamas had completely disarmed and dismantled its military infrastructure. But current and former officials acknowledged the Israeli elections at the end of October had created a stalemate.

“Of course, our discussions with Israel right now are not easy because of the elections there,” Mladenov conceded. “Everything is a little bit more emotional, a little bit more politically sensitive.”

Mladenov said discussions with Israel were continuing in order to make sure requirements for the International Stabilization Force were being put in place, even though Israel continues to block thousands of Gazans from traveling to Cairo for training.

Trump touted commitments from members and nonmembers at the Board of Peace’s launch event in February — and some have so far failed to come to fruition.

Trump said Norway, famously home of the Nobel Peace Prize, had agreed to host an event bringing together the Board of Peace. He also claimed that Japan committed to host an aid fundraiser featuring multiple Asian countries. “I know that China is going to be involved, and I think Russia is going to be involved,” Trump said.

Seven months later, none of that has happened and no new countries have signed on, underscoring the limitations of a board that Trump morphed into a different body than the one sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council.

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