Another Grant to Mali Is Suspended

Author:

David Garmaise

Article Number: 2

ABSTRACT The Global Fund has suspended a third grant to Mali, an HIV grant, due to evidence provided by the Fund’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) that grant funds have been misused. In December 2010, two malaria grants were suspended, and a TB grant was terminated, for the same reasons.

Evidence that grant money has been misused

The Global Fund has suspended another grant to Mali because of evidence that grant money has been misused. The exact amount of grant funds which remain unaccounted for has not yet been determined. The principal recipient, Groupe Pivot Santé Population, an NGO, will be replaced.

The $13.9 million Round 8 HIV grant is the third Mali grant to be suspended as a result of irregularities discovered by the Global Fund’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). (Two malaria grants were suspended in December 2010; at the same time, a TB grant was terminated.) Groupe Pivot Santé Population was also PR for one of the suspended malaria grants.

The Global Fund has grant agreements with Mali totalling $123 million, of which $79 million has been disbursed.

The suspended HIV grant provides for prevention programmes, including condom distribution, voluntary counselling and testing, and support for children who have been orphaned or made vulnerable by the AIDS epidemic. The grant suspension does not affect any of the 22,500 patients currently on antiretroviral treatment in Mali. They are financed by another grant which is not affected by this decision.

So far, 16 people have been arrested in connection with the misuse of Global Fund resources in Mali.

Information for this article was taken from “The Global Fund Suspends AIDS Grant in Mali,” Global Fund press release, 2 March 2011.