|Monitor, August 28 - Septmeber 2, 2005
Govt boots PMU over Aids money SIMON KASYATE KAMPALA When the news broke on Wednesday that the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria had suspended all its grants to Uganda because of financial mismanagement, the government, which said it was caught off-guard, promised to crack the whip. And crack the whip it has.
All officers who have been managing the Global Fund money in the Ministry of Health have been suspended.
"All the staff of the Project Management Unit (PMU), which has been managing the aid, have been suspended pending further investigation. The Government has also ordered a full audit of the project, to be carried out by the Auditor General," said a three-paragraph statement issued on Friday evening by Mr Chris Kassami, the Ministry of Finance permanent secretary, who also is the secretary to the treasury.
The suspension is part of the government's immediate remedial measures taken following the suspension of more than Shs280 billion in grant money aimed at helping Uganda fight HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.
The Ministry of Finance is the principal recipient of the money. According to the Global Fund, evidence of serious mismanagement involved a lack of proper accounting, with some expenditures not covered by invoices or receipts, and with some sub-recipients not being legally registered, or had addresses that don't exist.
Genesis
Some observers say that the problems that are now dogging the PMU go back to its formation early last year, especially the controversial appointment of its head.Dr Tiberius Muhebwa, whose appointment as Global Fund project co-ordinator in Uganda last year was marred by complaints of foul play, headed the PMU until the suspension on Friday.
For example, the Ministry of Health is accused of ignoring the recommendation of the international management consulting firm Ernst &Young against appointing Dr Muhebwa, who was a runner-up to best candidate John Mutumba in the interviews for job.
The Inspectorate of Government even looked into the matter but upheld Muhebwa's appointment on the grounds that Dr Mutumba was serving as head of another Ministry of Health project - the Nutrition and Early Childhood Development Project. This project wound up in June this year.
Given this background, critics are not surprised that PMU lacked the capacity right from the start to manage a project with such large sums of money.
The PMU has previously been accused by the Coalition for Access to Essential Medicine for influence peddling, lack of transparency and failure to employ ethical standards in selecting the NGOs it works with especially in mass sensitisation.
On Thursday afternoon, President Museveni weighed in on the Global Fund's suspension of the five grants - two for HIV/Aids, two for malaria and one for tuberculosis saying he may establish a commission of inquiry into the mismanagement of the money.
"I am very curious. I am going to take action and find out how they are using the money. I may appoint a commission of inquiry so that I can find out."Mr Museveni, who said he learnt of the aid suspension through a phone call from Health Minister Jim Muhwezi on Wednesday, emphasised, rather combatively, that the struggle against Aids would continue with or without the Fund.
"Our struggle did not start with the Global Fund. Our success story was long before it, therefore our struggle will continue," he said.
The President, however, was happy that the suspension did not affect provision of free anti-retrovirals to patients. "This time this [donor] group was more serious, they suspended money meant for sensitisation and moving around. This is good because our people will continue to get drugs and I will have more time to find out how the other funds were mismanaged."The Global Fund's decision was based on a review undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers of one of the five grants, which revealed "evidence of serious mismanagement by the Project Management Unit," a press statement issued by the Fund on Wednesday said.
The Fund's five grants to Uganda have a two-year value of $201 million, of which $45 million has been disbursed thus far. The grants are on average 6.5 months behind schedule.Caretaker team
More than 93 percent of the Ugandan population is at risk of malaria, which accounts for between 25 and 40 percent of out-patient attendance at health centres.Recent statistics indicate that up to 1.4 million people in Uganda have HIV/Aids, with an estimated 150,000 critically ill and in need of ARVs.
Tuberculosis is an opportunistic illness that resurged in the presence of Aids and now some 3.5 percent of the population is at risk.
To resume disbursement of the grant money, the Global Fund has demanded the disbandment of the PMU and given the Ministry of Finance up to October to come up with new ways of managing the money, although the Fund retains veto power on any new suggestions.
Consequently, in announcing the suspension of the PMU team, the Kassami statement also said that a new caretaker team has been appointed to carry out the activities previously undertaken by the Muhebwa unit."Therefore critical activities will not be interrupted and Government is doing all it can to normalise the flow of the essential grant funds," the statement read.
A source in the Ministry of Finance, however, said that that caretaker team will actually be named on Monday.
The source said that the ministry was considering one of three international management firms for the caretaker job. These include Deloitte & Touche and Ernst & Young."PricewaterhouseCoopers will not be considered since it is the one that made the report on the mismanagement of the funds," the source said.
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