1/28/2011
1:53pm
Germany suspended their annual payment to the Global Fund against Aids, TB, and malaria of more than 200m euros following corruption claims. There have been reports that billions of dollars were siphoned off. After an intensive investigation sums of the fund were concerned were far smaller than speculated. The fund says the misappropriation of the funds was discovered by its own investigative unit. 34m of unsubstantiated funds have been demanded back as an outcome. The global fund is the largest single source of money to tackle the three killer diseases. Because of the serious media allegations German Development minister Dirk Niebel postponed any further payments. Spokesman for the Global fund Jon Liden confirmed the misappropriation of about 34m uncovered in nine countries. The most serious cases of fraud occurred in Mali, Mauritania, Djibouti and Zambia discovered by the funds regular audits. With the claims of the fund saving more than seven million lives and the risk of distributing funds to low income countries corruption was said to be a risk.
With the halt of the distribution of the funds there seems to be a great risk to the health of the people who will receive treatment and dependent on the money that comes from the fund. With so much money being disbursed to countries that are stricken with poverty and war there seems that there should have been stricter guidelines and better observance to make sure that the money is fairly used. The Global Fund being the largest source of money to those countries; whose people are debilitated by the diseases the misuse is seen to be very greedy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12294232
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