Global Fund finds misappropriation of malaria grant

Apr 28, 2016 News

– seeking to recover millions
Global Fund is aiming to recover a sum of US$56,966 having detected what it has described as “fraud” within the operations of the Ministry of Health’s Vector Control Services (VCS) Unit. The fraud, according to Global Fund, was characterised by misrepresentation of information and misappropriation of funds.
Moreover, Global Fund is seeking to recover the sum that has been deemed “non-compliant expenditure.”
Guyana has over the years been privilege to benefit from repeated grants from the Global Fund to advance the public health’s efforts to combat the Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), Tuberculosis and Malaria which is executed under the Vector Control Services Unit.
Detailed in the Background and Scope of the 26-page Report, it is noted that Guyana’s malaria grant, GYA-M-MOH, commenced on September 1, 2011 and is scheduled to end on December 31, 2016.
The Principal Recipient for the grant is the Guyana Ministry of Health. The amount committed by the Global Fund under this grant, is US$ 1,281,888 and disbursements to date total US$1,107,669.
It was emphasised that malaria surveillance activities and the distribution of bed nets under the Global Fund malaria grant in Guyana are implemented by Vector Control Services (VCS), a department of the Principal Recipient. The alleged irregularities were reported to have taken place while VCS was under the management of its former director who resigned and left VCS on December 9, 2015.
The former Director in question is Dr. Reyaud Rahman.
Global Fund pointed out that in March 2015; the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) received a complaint from a whistleblower alleging irregularities in the Global Fund malaria grant in Guyana. It continued by stating that in July 2015, the Global Fund Secretariat also reported to the OIG a series of complaints it had received in relation to the same grant.
The report states that “the complaints centered on the fabrication of data relating to the distribution of bed nets, malaria surveillance activities and associated fraudulent expenditures, including ‘per diems’ and fuel for programmatic work that allegedly did not take place.”
It was against this background, the report underscored, that the OIG decided to initiate an investigation which focused on the malaria surveillance activities of VCS during the period in which the ex-director of VCS was responsible for the Global Fund malaria programme.
The report encompassed five six-month periods between January 1, 2013 and June 30, 2015.
Global Fund grant activities in Guyana operate in Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine. As a result, the OIG investigation focused on these regions, the report added.
As part of its investigation, the OIG undertook a mission to Guyana in August 2015 during which employees of the Global Fund malaria programme, VCS and the Ministry of Health were interviewed. Efforts were also made at that time to collect and review programmatic, administrative and financial documentation.
As of March 1, 2016, the Global Fund said that it has made commitments to Guyana under seven grants totaling US$44,144,131, of which US$ 42,111,127 has been disbursed. And since malaria is endemic in Guyana, particularly in the hinterland regions, programmes supported by the Global Fund aim to reduce the social and economic impact of malaria in the country.
Global Fund has also observed that Guyana has been reporting a decline in the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) cases although HIV-TB co-infection still remains a challenge in the country.
It has also noted that the HIV epidemic in Guyana has stabilized in recent years with a reduction in AIDS cases and in the number of AIDS-related deaths.

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Global Fund finds misappropriation of malaria grant

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