Germany to Withhold $270 Million Pledge to Global Fund Pending Investigation of Corruption

Germany's development ministry on Wednesday "said its pledge of €200 million ($270 million) will be withheld from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria pending a full investigation by Germany into the corruption that the fund's own investigators are turning up," the Associated Press reports. A ministry spokesman who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity "said it was demanding that the fund shed more light on the $34 million in losses due to forged documents, improper bookkeeping and other widespread fraud and has summoned a Global Fund representative to discuss the reports," the news service writes (Heilprin, 1/26). "The news of corruption couldn't have come at a worse time -- just days before the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the Global Fund traditionally maintains a high profile in the hope of attracting new support from the rich, the famous and the powerful," Deutsche Welle reports (1/26).

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