 Estimated initial reconstruction costs were put at 20 million U.S. dollars by experts from UNESCO, which was the principal contributor of funds as well as expertise due to the Rova's then status as a soon-to-be officially recognised World Heritage Site.The French Development Agency also pledged tens of thousands of dollars to the project while additional monies in the form of private donations from residents of Antananarivo helped to fund the reconstruction of the tombs on the complex.However, according to a UNESCO report released in June 2000, the majority of funds raised by UNESCO between 1997 and 2000 for the Ratsiraka administration's Rova reconstruction initiative—an estimated 700 billion Malagasy Francs—were allegedly embezzled by the DNOR Administrator, stalling reconstruction at the end of the planning stage.