Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 9/14/2005

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1 - UGANDA: Inquiry starts into mismanagement of AIDS funds

1 - UGANDA: Inquiry starts into mismanagement of AIDS funds

KAMPALA, 14 September (PLUSNEWS) - A six-man commission has opened its inquiry

into allegations of mismanagement of Uganda's anti-AIDS programme and will hold

public hearings, officials said on Tuesday.

The head of the probe, High Court Judge Ogoola, said that the public

hearings would unveil information behind the controversy that precipitated the

suspension of a US $200 million aid package to Uganda by the Global Fund to

Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The Geneva-based NGO suspended part of its assistance to Uganda in August after

an audit revealed mismanagement of the funds. It restricted the programme to

provide for only life-saving measures - including the provision of drugs and

condoms - until an inquiry is complete.

Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, named the commission.

" The hearings will be fully public and persons involved will be free to hire

lawyers. We plan to design an open website for the public and the world to

monitor the proceedings. We call upon the public, all institutions and

individuals who have any information regarding the matter to come and avail

themselves, " Ogoola told a news conference held to announce the inquiry.

" We are working in phases, " he added. " We are still in a brainstorming phase. We

are starting with self-education.From there we shall open up to the public

hearings. The investigations will last two months from September 6. "

The Global Fund had already remitted over $40 million to the country's AIDS

programme when its auditors discovered gross cases of misconduct.

The sanction dealt a heavy blow to Uganda, which has been on the frontline of

the battle against HIV/AIDS.

The pandemic has killed nearly a million people in the East African country, and

a similar number of its population currently live with the HI virus. Uganda's

aggressive AIDS programme has helped reduce its prevalence rate from as high as

30 percent in the early 1990s to the current 6 percent.

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