Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 8/24/2005

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CONTENT:

1 - UGANDA: Global fund suspends anti-AIDS grants

1 - UGANDA: Global fund suspends anti-AIDS grants

KAMPALA, 24 August (PLUSNEWS) - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and

Malaria announced on Wednesday a suspension of all its grants to Uganda due to

" evidence of serious mismanagement " of the funds.

Ugandan health minister Jim Muhwezi said the suspension would disrupt the

country's hitherto successful anti-AIDS campaign.

" I have got that communication, " Muhwezi told IRIN on Wednesday. " They are

concerned about certain issues that they want clarified, and so they have

suspended grants to us. "

He added: " It is a disruption of the anti-AIDS programme, but we hope that we

can be able to sort out what they want in a short time. "

The fund said it had suspended the grants until the Ugandan Ministry of Finance

put in place a new structure that would guarantee the effective management of

the funds.

In a statement issued from its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the fund

said the decision was based on a review of one of the five grants - undertaken

by Pricewaterhouses - that revealed " evidence of serious mismanagement by

the Project Management Unit (PMU) in the Ministry of Health " .

It added: " The PMU has been responsible for overseeing the implementation of

Global Fund programmes in Uganda. While the review centered on the Round 1

HIV/AIDS grant, the same PMU manages all five grants, and to minimise risk all

five have been temporarily suspended. "

" The other grants include a second grant for HIV/AIDS, two grants to combat

malaria, and one grant targeting tuberculosis. These grants are worth a total of

US $201 million over two years, of which $45.4 million has been disbursed to

date. "

The fund requested the Ugandan finance ministry to come up with a plan by the

end of October for re-structured implementation arrangements for all

grant-funded programmes.

However, the fund added, arrangements were being put in place to continue

funding life-saving treatment and prevention activities such as the procurement

and distribution of condoms.

Uganda has won international praise for its aggressive campaign against

HIV/AIDS, managing to bring levels down from more than 20 percent in the 1980s,

to its current 7 percent prevalence rate.

The East African country is, however, still confronted with a serious HIV/AIDS

epidemic and about 1.2 million of its people are living with the disease.

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