{{A Global Fund audit has uncovered that a total of US$2,23 million (approximately N$20 million) spent by Namibian recipients has not been properly accounted for.}}
Of this, US$1,65 million (approximately N$14,85 million) was unsupported and US$580 000 (approximately N$5,2 million) ineligible, it is stated in the audit report released on October 2.
Of the unsupported expenditure, approximately N$38 169 was spent by the Catholic Aids Action (CAA), N$756 216 by the Ministry of Education and N$1,54 million by Development Aid from People to People (DAPP).
The Society of Family Health spent N$5,13 million, the Council of Churches in Namibia N$4,8 million and the National Social Marketing Association N$2,62 million.
These are expenditures which were “not adequately documented”. According to the report, no assurance can be given that the funds were used for the intended purpose.
The Society of Family Health was also the biggest culprit in unapproved expenditure, having spent N$3,03 million of funds not in accordance with grant agreements.
Global Fund general manager (GM) Gabriel Jaramillo said its secretariat will see to it that these amounts are paid back.
The Ministry of Health and Social Services was the principal recipient of five of the six Global Fund grants made to Namibia.
In the audit, “a number of significant weaknesses” were identified in the internal controls of recipients. “There is scope to improve and strengthen controls over expenditure.”
The Global Fund’s Office of the Inspector General, which conducted the audit, could therefore not provide its board “with reasonable assurance over the effectiveness of controls in place at the time of the audit”.
The Global Fund had given grants totalling US$200 million (N$1,8 billion) to Namibia by 2011. Of this, N$1,3 billion had been disbursed to recipients.
The Office of the Inspector General of Global Fund identified weak oversight structures at sub-recipient level “which compromise programme performance and in some cases led to the termination of the Global Fund grants”.
Among other things, the oversight boards were not always fully constituted during the grant implementation period – like in the case of the National Social Marketing (Nasoma) programme and Lironga Eparu.
Global Fund pulled the plug on Lironga Eparu in 2010.
Nasoma, CAA and CCN also came under fire for not reaching their targets.
CCN had no results of the number of clients tested and counselled at its three Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VTC) centres, and its result on the number of people trained for home-based care did not have sufficient supporting documents.
Nasoma, whose target was to distribute free condoms, also did not have sufficient documentation of its spending.
For the number of HIV-AIDS brochures and booklets printed and distributed, CAA scored a mere 24%.
Some sub-recipients also entered into transactions with each other, which the report cautioned could lead to conflicts of interest, for which there were no policies.
Richard Kamwi, the Minister of Health and Social Services, yesterday said although he was aware of the audit report, he had not read it. “I cannot comment until such time as I have read it.”
Nasoma director Juliet Mudabeti said she was not aware of the report.
Other NGOs named in the report as not having provided documentation for their spending and from which Global Fund now demands the funds, could not be reached for comment yesterday at the time of going to print.
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