HIV/AIDS FUNDING ABUSE

The National 2 August 2011

A general compliance audit conducted over the last 3 years into the use of Government funding for HIV/AIDS has revealed substantial misuse of funds.

It exposes cases of double-dipping, lack of acquittals and other corrupt practices.

National AIDS Council Secretariat Director Wep Kanawi said in a circular to more than 50 stakeholders the Council had requested for the audit.

He said that some stakeholders were charging abnormally high recurrent costs, some as high as 90% of the total budget while only 10% was devoted to programs.

We have been directed by the Government’s planning and budget framers to ensure stakeholders frame their budgets on the basis of 60% program and 40% recurrent costs.

A number of stakeholders were budgeting for the same programs resulting in the same projects being funded twice by different sources.

Stakeholders who are caught double-dipping will have their funding arrangements annulled and lose their eligibility to apply for further funding.

Many stakeholders change the scope of their programs midway through their schedule. This means they are implementing programs outside of their NHS guidelines. This is violation of the process.

Comment. These problems have been known for some years. About 5 years ago, UNDP under Nii Plange planned a monitoring body to vet all applications. AIDS Holistics was to be involved with an officer by the name of Noah as Chairman. But it never occurred.

We had planned a social mapping process in which we plotted out the project areas of each funded project to establish whether or not there would be double-dipping.

We would determine if funding bodies were claiming the same roles over the same territory. But the project died. And corruption went on.

It became obvious early that the watchdog body would be even more corrupt. Some of us will remember that it all came unstuck at a public meeting at Lamana Hotel.