The Global Fund’s Office of the Inspector General has found that Cameroon, Mauritania, Mali, and Zambia misappropriated about US$25 million in grants meant for fighting AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on the continent. No surprise there!
In response Sweden is reported to withholding its pledge to the Global Fund. While Sweden (which has contributed US$85 million a year to the Global Fund) is right in demanding to see “how the Global Fund behaves when fraud is detected in a recipient country,” more should be done on both ends giving and recipient nations. There is an unspoken code among the international community of givers to only focus on recipient countries when it comes to how international funds are administered. If I were the Inspector General, I would go a step further by also looking at the international organizations/NGOs through which some of the Global funds are channeled.
The crux of the matter is that the current global system for disbursing international assistance/aid to developing nations is untenable due to inefficiency, and lack of accountability and transparency.
