IAS flays alarmist media reports, highlights …
THE International AIDS Society (IAS) views very seriously the publication of several media reports which it describes as ‘alarmist’ and  ‘serious distortions’ of the extent of fraud discovered in grants financed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and is therefore urging all donors and governments to continue their funding. The release issued by the IAS last Thursday, came on the heels of Associated Press (AP)  reports that: “four African countries — Djibouti, Mali, Mauritania, and Zambia — had misused grants from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria…”
However, in response to those reports, Global Fund Board Chair, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Board Vice-Chair, Dr. Ernest Loevinsohn, last week issued a statement in which they strongly affirmed their unwavering support for the Global Fund’s policy of zero-tolerance for fraud and corruption.
It outlined:  “The Global Fund is widely known for its probity, transparency and effectiveness. The Global fund itself identified these latest findings, shared them widely, and has responded vigorously to them. This strengthens – rather than diminishes – the Global Fund’s hard-earned and well-deserved reputation.”
Alluding to cases of fraud in some Global Fund grants that were recently cited in the media, they reiterated that they were not new, and were all, in fact, uncovered and promptly addressed last year, thanks to the Global Fund’s fraud detection processes and its firm commitment to accountability and transparency.   The officials assured that reports of these fraud cases were shared with representatives of donor and implementing governments as well as civil society organizations on the Global Fund Board, and posted on the Global Fund’s website well in advance of the last board meeting.
The statement issued on February 8, reads, inter alia:  “As the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Global Fund Board, we wish to express our full confidence in the Global Fund as a vital and effective instrument for fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria around the world. Global Fund resources are saving lives on an unprecedented scale, with programmes supported by the Global Fund estimated to have saved 6.5 million lives to date.
“The board remains firm in its commitment to ensuring that resources invested in the Global Fund reach people in need and that all its grants are managed effectively and made subject to rigorous oversight and financial controls. We feel privileged to be serving this unique institution which is committed to upholding the highest levels of transparency and accountability in all of its operations.
“While we and our colleagues on the board recognize there are inherent risks when financing life-saving interventions in some of the poorest and hardest to reach places on the globe, we also strongly reaffirm our unwavering support for the Global Fund’s policy of zero-tolerance for fraud and corruption.
Meanwhile, in the light of such developments, the statement disclosed that, on February, with the full support of the board, the Global Fund announced a number of measures to reinforce its financial safeguards and increase its capacity to prevent and detect fraud and misuse in its grants, many of which are already underway. These measures include:
* Expanding the mandate of firms that monitor expenditure in countries in order to enhance fraud prevention and detection;
* Strengthening the role of country coordinating bodies in grant oversight;
* Additional scrutiny of activities considered at higher risk of fraud, such as training;
* Redirecting a proportion of all grants to assess and strengthen financial controls at country level;
* Increasing the number of the fund’s staff responsible for financial management, and
* Doubling the budget of the fund’s independent Inspector General.
The statement added that the organization is also setting up a high-profile panel of international experts to review its systems and ensure that its approaches to fraud prevention are among the strongest in the world. That report is to be delivered to the Global Fund Board by the panel in May.
Meanwhile, the IAS, in its release on Thursday said that a distinguishing feature of the Global Fund is its strict and transparent auditing system, and its openness when it uncovers corruption.
The IAS noted that the Global Fund is the most effective mechanism through which to disburse large amounts of resources rapidly and is credited with saving millions of lives. It is recognized as such by the international community. When the Global Fund was first created in 2002, only 40,000 people living with HIV in low and middle-income countries were receiving life saving anti-retroviral drugs. By December 2009, Global Fund-supported programmes were providing antiretroviral therapy to 2.5 million individuals in 104 low and middle-income countries, and the Global Fund Board had approved proposals totalling USD 19.2 billion and disbursed over USD 10 billion for HIV, TB and malaria control efforts to over 140 countries.