| Friday, March 24, 2006 |
| Missing money from the Global Fund |
Today is World TB Day. TB, together with HIV/AIDS and malaria, claims 6 million lives a year mostly in developing countries. Therefore, it is important to have a special day for it to raise awareness to the problem and in theory find lasting solutions. Some countries had organized special events to, hopefully, achieve these goals.
Unfortunately, Uganda has some concocted accounting to worry about to join in the celebrations. Assistants to the Ugandan Health Ministers cannot balance the books for the money that the Ministry received from the Global Fund.
The fund was established in response to the acute financial needs to combat the three evils (not the Bush axis of evils – the three killer diseases). The Ugandan Ministry of Health is facing Enron-like book-cooking scandals. This is what PETER NYANZI & JUDE LUGGYA had to say about it.
THE personal assistants to Health Ministers Jim Muhwezi and Mike Mukula yesterday failed to defend the accountability they submitted for the millions of Global Fund cash they received on behalf of their bosses. The aides yesterday appeared before the commission of inquiry into the alleged mismanagement of the Global Fund against Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, after the ministers said they were better placed to answer questions about the accountability.
Forged receipts and funds an accounted for are common in this cases. However, the surprising fact of this story is that money was “borrowed” from the Global Fund for Jim Muhwezi (one of the Ministers) to campaign for 21 days in South and West Africa on behalf of a certain Dr. Omasawa who was eying the regional director position at the World Health Organization. Who would blame me for wondering what kind of governance mechanisms the Fund has in place? Okay, Muhwezi’s excuse to travel for 21 days was that he was “visiting projects funded with Global Fund’s money.” Ring, ring…! Anybody listening the warning bells? What confuses me is the word borrow” if it is for project evaluation. Back in 2002, Oxfam was urging “for seven pillars” to be in place to make the fund work properly and efficiently. Amongst the ‘seven pillars” is “A transparent system of allocation to ensure equitable service delivery.”
The Commission which is investigating the case sounds as if they are on top of this. This is the type of gross selfishness that hurts millions of people and Africa’s reputation. As Chinua Akukwe, professor of Global Health at the George Washington Uni. argues governance is one of the ten challenges for Africa regarding development in 2006. Corruption is one of the items on Dr. Caleb Rossiter’s list why grand development plans are not going to succeed without tackling:
•dictatorships and the provision of weapons and training to them by the West and now China in return for military cooperation, minerals, and markets;
•the ethnic civil wars that result from undemocratic rule, and the massive migration from these conflicts and poorer regions in general toward pockets of growth;
•corruption in both donor and recipient governments, including the tying of aid to purchases from the donor’s economy, such as development consultants and military hardware;
•the natural brain drain of talented and trained personnel from the low and inconsistently-paid civil service to higher-paying foreign aid projects such as AIDS clinics, to cities, and to the developed countries;
•the resistance by developed nations to refining, packaging, and retailing by poor countries, which keeps them in their colonial roles as producers of raw materials with deteriorating terms of trade;
•the inability of their governments, as a result, to generate foreign currencies for the small but crucial imports needed to sustain foreign aid projects, and to generate sufficient domestic growth to produce the tax revenues needed to keep colleges, schools, and clinics staffed and open, rather than on strike or functioning minimally;
•the foreign aid “transfer problem,” which occurs when a flood of external demand for local currency for aid projects inflates the currency and depresses exports and growth; and the unavoidable dislocation of entire generations during the transition from traditional rural production to a modern urban economy. |
posted by Fikirte @ 5:02 PM
 
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| 2 Comments: |
- name<="c114346616599633794" id="c114346616599633794">
Typical Third World!
Prior assuming power they propagate to improve infrastructure and totally the life of the Mass. And they gather fund in the name of the Mass.
That money is used to abuse the mass, to lead an extra ordinary life and to maintain a long lasting power.
When will they ever learn?
- name<="c114377260047795132" id="c114377260047795132">
Actually, you should say typical polititian. Geography has nothing to do with it. There isn't real difference between the First, Second, Fourth or the inbetween countries. Polititians in the US are equally guilty of lying, stealing, deceiving, cover up and all the rest. The small difference is that crooks in the US do not steal from 80-90% of the poor like their African counterparts.
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Typical Third World!
Prior assuming power they propagate to improve infrastructure and totally the life of the Mass. And they gather fund in the name of the Mass.
That money is used to abuse the mass, to lead an extra ordinary life and to maintain a long lasting power.
When will they ever learn?