Monitor, September 1, 2005
Uganda to refund stolen Aids cash
FRANK NYAKAIRU
KAMPALA
THE Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has told the Uganda government to recover money it says was misappropriated leading to the suspension of all its five grants to Uganda.
The Chief of Operations of the Geneva based Global Fund, Mr Bradford Herbert told a press conference at the Ministry of Finance Boardroom yesterday that his visiting team had asked the government to restructure the Country Coordination Mechanism (CCM) to carry on with monitoring the fund.
We have asked the Ministry of Finance to recover any funds that could have been misappropriated and we hope that will be done, said Bradford who was flanked by the Permanent Secretary in the Finance Ministry Mr Chris Kassami.
Bradford was tight-lipped over the amount of money lost but described it as significant.
Over Shs80 billion ($45.4 million) has already been disbursed. This is part of the five grants worth $201 million over two years.
He also announced that the suspension would be lifted in October if what we have agreed on goes well.
A process has started and it might take weeks but in October the suspension will be lifted, Bradford said.
A process has started and it might take weeks but in October the suspension will be lifted, Bradford said.
Kassami declined to answer questions on whether government would dip into the Consolidated fund to pay back the Global Funds money.
Kassami, who represents the principal recipients of the funds, the Finance Ministry, said the government would instead recover the money from selling property of those found guilty of misappropriating it.
Whoever will be found to have broken the law, the law will take its course. If there are people who have taken the money, it will be easier to recover it from their property, Kassami, who is also the Secretary to the Treasury, said.
Bradford and his team had also earlier in the day visited Parliament and met Members of Parliament on the National Economy committee.
He defended the Global Funds move to suspend the grants. It took me two days to read the report and I made the decision because many people are dying out there. We give the money to be utilised and not to be misused, Bradford said.
Bradford said that projects covering life-threatening initiatives would not be disrupted by the suspension of the fund.
In the meantime, an international auditing firm Ernst &Young has temporarily taken over management of the Global Fund from the disbanded Project Management Unit (PMU).
The decision was reached at a two-hour meeting between the Minister of Health Maj. Gen. Jim Muwhezi and three officials from the Global Fund Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Global Fund last week suspended all its five grants to Uganda over serious mismanagement of the funds, asking the Ugandan Ministry of Finance to put in place a new structure that will ensure effective management of the grants. The Fund announced last week that it was withholding over Shs280 billion.
The investigation, which exposed much of the rot in the management of the grants, was done by the Global Funds local fund agent (LFA), PricewaterhouseCoopers, which found a string of problems with the grants. The problems involved lack of proper accounting for funds, with some expenditures not covered by invoices or receipts.
Additional reporting by Mercy Nalugo.
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