Fuente : World Bank
http://www.worldbank.org

Global Fund Suspends AIDS Grant To Uganda

/noticias.info/ The Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has suspended its grants to Uganda, a pioneer of AIDS treatment, after an investigation uncovered evidence of “serious mismanagement” of funds, reports The Financial Times.

The investigation by the organization’s “local fund agent” (LFA), the business services firm PwC, found a string of problems with the grants, the FT was told. The fund has disbursed about $45 million to Uganda over several years. The report found that when dollar grants were converted into Ugandan shillings, discrepancies between the exchange rate reported and actual market exchange rates meant that there was a shortfall of some $280,000. Other problems involved a lack of proper accounting for funds, with some expenditures not covered by invoices or receipts, the report said. The grants were administered by a special Program Management Unit (PMU) set up within Uganda's Health Ministry.

Uganda, one of the aid darlings of Africa in the recent past, has been praised for its efforts in tackling AIDS. The Global Fund said that, in spite of the report, Uganda's programs had successfully treated thousands of sufferers, and said it would try to ensure that such programs were not disrupted. It also defended its central role in the global fight against AIDS. But Uganda has come under increasing criticism for the continued perceived prevalence of corruption, as measured by surveys such as that of the campaign, Transparency International. Some officials and campaigners are raising questions about giving debt relief and aid without strict conditions on use.

The Group of Eight leading industrialized countries decided recently to extend 100 per cent debt relief to countries including Uganda that have already qualified under an international initiative. Several European countries objected to the lack of conditions attached. Writing in the FT recently, Karl Ziegler, director of the Centre for Accountability and Debt Relief in London, said: “Most observers of Africa realize that if foreign aid and/or debt forgiveness were not monitored, Africa's ruling elites would opt for luxuries for themselves, rather than for boreholes in desperately water-deprived areas or schools or dispensaries.”

The Monitor (Uganda) meanwhile writes that as malaria continues to kill hundreds of Ugandans every week, the Ugandan Ministry of Health has for over a year failed to collect a huge consignment of the latest approved modern drug worth more than Shs50 billion provided by the Global Fund. Because of confusion in the procurement process, 15 million doses of Coartem, one of the two modern malaria combination remedies recommended since 2002, cannot be brought into the country and the Global Fund's approval for the money has now expired. The drugs were requisitioned by the ministry on behalf of the country's myriad of anti-malaria programs, through the Country Coordination Mechanism (CCM), the national structure for accessing Global Fund resources to fight AIDS, TB and malaria. Other malaria control materials such as Insecticide Treated Nets (RBM) initiative and insecticides under Round 2 were never procured either.

The daily further writes that the cancellation of Uganda's donation now makes the implementation of the 2002 malaria drug policy more uncertain because the country cannot afford the drug outside the WHO brokered terms at $40 per dose for its population. Because the drugs have a short shelf life (they expire after 2 years), large consignments are manufactured on order and the manufacturers require six months from the time a firm order is placed with them. notas_de_prensa_archivo