SWAZILAND PR REPORTS A CASE OF EMBEZZLEMENT

Author:

David Garmaise

Article Type:

Article Number: 5

ABSTRACT The National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDS, principal recipient for Global Fund grants in Swaziland, has uncovered an incident of embezzlement by one of its employees. NERCHA has taken disciplinary action against the employee and has taken measures to strengthen its financial controls.

The National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA), which is the principal recipient (PR) for all Global Fund grants in Swaziland, has uncovered an incident of embezzlement by one of its employees.

NERCHA has taken disciplinary action against the employee, has reported the incident to the Swaziland Country Coordinating Mechanism and to the Global Fund, and has taken measures to strengthen its financial controls.

NERCHA discovered that something was amiss during a routine verification of accounts, and it asked its internal auditors to launch a forensic audit. The employee is alleged to have stolen about 117,000 lilangenis (about $16,000), of which 50,000 lilangenis (about $7,000) was Global Fund money.

The theft occurred after the audit of Swaziland grants conducted by the Office of the Inspector General was completed in 2010, and is unrelated to the audit.

Information for this article was obtained from an article in the Swazi Observer, and from direct communications with NERCHA.