Global Fund Halts AIDS Cash to Uganda Over "Mismanagement"

Today in Geneva, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria announced it is suspending aid to Uganda. The Global Fund said its auditors have raised serious questions about the operations of the Project Management Unit, the special agency created by the Ugandan government to administer the fund's cash allocations.

"The Global Fund has decided to suspend its five grants to Uganda because there is evidence of serious mismanagement by the Project Management Unit," it said. The fund cited "inappropriate expenditure and improper accounting" but no clear indication of fraud or corruption.

However, the fund noted that the suspension will not affect vital patient assistance or the supply of antiretroviral drugs, as these can be monitored directly from Geneva. "All necessary measures will be taken to ensure that life-saving treatment as well as prevention activities such as condom procurement ... will not be disrupted," the fund said.

The suspension is set to last two months. The fund is asking Uganda to use that time to put in place a new system for handling the money.

Uganda's government had no immediate reaction to the announcement. The national prevention campaign that cut HIV/AIDS rates from as high as 30 percent in the early 1990s to around 6 percent has been held up as an example to other African countries. Many Ugandans credit the willingness of President Yoweri Museveni to talk frankly about condoms. But his administration has lately been criticized for seeming to focus more on abstinence in an effort to win funds from U.S. congressional conservatives.

The Global Fund earmarked $201 million for Uganda during a two-year period. So far, the nation has received about $45 million.

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