A person living with HIV/AIDS:Money to help him stolen by Nigerian officials
The Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria says it is suspending aid to Nigeria’s AIDS agency over evidence that $3.8 million was stolen by its workers and consultants.
Spokesman Seth Faison said Friday that Nigeria’s government has promised to repay the money to the Geneva-based agency and to prosecute suspects.
A report by the fund’s inspector general says seven government workers and three consultants stole the money over five years between 2010 and 2014.
The report said the fraud continued because the National Agency for the Control of AIDS did not have proper audits.
The missing money is 95 percent of the amount budgeted to implement, administer and train users of a web-based reporting platform but a fraction of the $1.4 billion the fund has spent in Nigeria.
Summary of the Audit by Global Fund:
An Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audit of Global Fund grants in Nigeria has identified significant problems in procurement, supply chain, financial and program management. The auditors found discrepancies of over US$4 million between drugs ordered and delivered; US$20 million paid to suppliers without confirmation of delivery; stock-outs of eight months for critical medicines; and a total of US$7.65 million in unsupported expenditures. The Global Fund is reviewing corrective measures, particularly with regard to risk management, identified by the OIG as the root cause of many of the issues.
With more than US$1.4 billion invested since 2003, Nigeria represents the Global Fund’s largest portfolio. Programs to date have contributed to 750,000 people living with HIV/AIDS currently on antiretroviral therapy, 310,000 new smear-positive tuberculosis cases detected and treated and 93.4 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets distributed to prevent the spread of malaria.
Regarding procurement, the OIG found that Principal Recipients, the National Agency for the Control of AIDS and the …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
