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Health Ministry denies transparency concern over AIDS funding

Feb 18, 2015 News

The Ministry of Health yesterday said that there is no specific recommendation on transparency with which Guyana has to comply with in order to benefit from U$9 million in funding from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The Ministry was referring to statements by UNAIDS Country Director Dr Roberto Campos, that disbursement of the funds hinges on transparency and other benchmarks.
Programme Director of the National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS), Dr Shanti Singh, said that all principal recipients of the Global Fund are guided by clear benchmarks for transparency that have been established.
“During the process of applying for a country grant, countries are required to satisfy the Global Fund on issue of transparency and accountability as part of the eligibility criteria for a concept note for which Guyana complied.
“If a country does not pass this first phase a grant is not approved,” the Health Ministry stated.
In a statement issued at the NAPS, the Ministry of Health said “there is no specific recommendation on transparency that Guyana has to comply with for the remainder of the funds to be released. The HIV programme has always been transparent in its actions.”
In an interview, Dr Campos said that Guyana programmes under the Global Fund had to re-organised to meet a new global funding model. He had said the Global Fund is “really worried” about the process of procurement of supplies in general and ARVs (Anti-Retroviral Drugs) drugs in particular.
According to Campos, there needed to be clear guidelines developed by the government for the procurement and supply of drugs. He particularly mentioned the needs for a procurement manual.
In relation to the procurement of Anti-retroviral drugs for HIV patients, Dr Singh said the Ministry of Health is a signatory to the Global Fund’s Voluntary Pooled Procurement (VPP), a strategy established by Global Fund to support countries.
“Through this mechanism, procurement of ARVs for the Guyana programme is therefore not done by Guyana, Rather the country receives the ARVs procured by the Global Fund through VPP,” the Ministry of Health said.
In relation to the availability of ARVs, the National Programme conducts regular quantification based on sound methodology with consideration of critical information such as stock on hand, ARV regimen use and others, the Ministry stated.
It added that this has resulted in a high level of accuracy in quantifying the country’s needs for ARVs and has therefore ensured consistent and uninterrupted supply of ARVs.
Dr Singh said that in the last five years, only on one occasion was supplies requested on an emergency basis.
In the interview, Dr Campos had said that Guyana pays much more for drugs than other countries and one of the reasons is that drugs are purchased on an emergency basis.
“If you start the process one year before, you know you will need ‘X’ amount of drugs, and so you purchase those drugs in a lower prices; if you delay the purchase you need to buy in emergency way so the price will go up,” Dr Campos had stated.

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