Commentary
I was alerted to this report in an e-mail today from the Malaria Roundtable in Washington. Thhis is the message I sent after looking at the Report for the first time:

Email to Malaria Roundtable Group

Dear Colleagues

I wish I had been able to attend the presentation by Dr. Christopher Benn. It was good to get your message with his Powerpoint presentation and link to the full report.

Interesting that the High-Level Independent Review Panel on Fiduciary Controls and Oversight Mechanism at the Global Fund (GFATM) is an initiative of the GFATM Board of Directors. Good ... better late than never.

However, I am still appalled ... disgusted ... that so much money was mobilized with so little attention to the issue of accounting and accountability for 10 years and many billions of dollars of fund flow. Nobody has any idea how much of the money and the related medical resources have been misappropriated or misused in this period. The structure of the GFATM's process was flawed from the very start, and some of us did our best in the early days to get a system or process where the money would be fully accounted for all the way through from donor origination to client benefit. As it turned out the powers creating GFATM chose to use the UN, World Bank, Official Development Assistance (ODA) model for program management which is heavy at pre-implementation analysis and light when real money is flowing ... and most critically devoid of all meaningful accounting and financial control. After 30 plus years following the money in the ODA sector it is clear that too many actors like this model because the financial controls DO NOT WORK and because of this nobody is every able to be held accountable.

This report is a nice read. For many years there have been anecdotal allegations of huge financial problems in the GFATM programs, but for all practical purposes GFATM has been unresponsive. This report reads well, but if the measure of impact is that cases of misappropriation and misuse get punished, it is completely absent.

The sad thing is that accounting and accountability is always positioned as being something that slows down delivery of benefit to the needy ... something that is absolute baloney. The reality is that lack of accounting and accountability significantly reduces the delivery of benefit to the needy and enriches a whole lot of people in and around the fund flow pipeline.

As I indicated at the start of my message I am both appalled and disgusted ... but at the same time I am determined that there will be changes so that needy people are better served by the socio-economic system..

Peter Burgess @truevaluemetric www. truevaluemetrics.org

I make no mention of how TrueValueMetrics will help to get some truly independent control of major relief and development assistance financial flows. There is reference in the report to a number of recommended changes which I need to analyze in more detail, but it seems that the word 'accounting' and the idea of 'financial control' are completely missing from the report. Why am I not surprised?
Peter Burgess

High Level Independent Review Panel
The High-Level Independent Review Panel on Fiduciary Controls and Oversight Mechanism was established in March after the Global Fund’s Office of the Inspector General reported misappropriation of Global Fund grant funds in some countries.

The panel has assessed the Global Fund’s current practices in financial oversight and implementation. To perform the assessment, the members of the panel examined a representative sample of grants in 40 countries in different risk categories, drawing conclusions and making recommendations. The panel visited 12 countries and closely reviewed Global Fund policies and documents.

The panel has submitted its recommendations to the Global Fund’s Board and finds that the organization needs to focus much more on its core business of managing grants to save and protect lives. It recommends improving financial and Board oversight, simplifying grant application processes, and putting in place a robust risk management framework.

This independent review is a major part of a broader set of measures that continue to be implemented to strengthen the Global Fund’s financial safeguards.

High Level Independent Review Panel Compositon

The High-Level Independent Review Panel on Fiduciary Controls and Oversight Mechanism was established in March following media reports on the misappropriation of Global Fund grant funds in some countries. The Panel is co-chaired by former President of Botswana Festus Mogae and former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt.

IMAGE FMogae
Festus Mogae former President of Botswana

Festus Mogae was President of Botswana from 1998 to 2008. He won the 2008 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African leadership in recognition of his record of good governance as President. Earlier in his career, he occupied posts at the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of Botswana

IMAGE Leavitt
Michael O. Leavitt former U.S. Secretary for Health and Human Services

Michael O. Leavitt served under President George W. Bush as Secretary of Health and Human Services from 2005 to 2009. During his three terms as Governor of Utah, the state was recognized six times as one of the U.S.’s best-managed. A seasoned diplomat, Leavitt led U.S. delegations to more than 50 countries, conducting negotiations on matters related to health, the environment and trade. Leavitt also served on the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

The appointment of this panel is part of the Global Fund’s commitment to ensuring financial controls are the most robust possible, and that donor investments go directly to fighting AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

The other members of the high-level panel are:

Zeinab Bashir El Bakri, Director, Office of His Highness the Prime Minister of Kuwait and former Vice-President Sector Operations of the African Development Bank;

Norbert Hauser, Germany’s Vice-President of the Federal Court of Audit;

Gabriel Jaramillo, Chairman of the Sovereign Bank Board and Special Advisor at the United Nations Secretary-General Office of the Special Envoy for Malaria;

The Honourable Barry O’Keefe, Consultant, Clayton UTZ Sydney and former Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales (Australia);

Claude Rubinowicz, Chief Executive for France’s Agence du patrimoine immatériel de l’État (APIE, Agency for Public Intangibles of France) and former Inspecteur Général des Finances.

The panel has assessed the Global Fund’s current practices in financial oversight and implementation. To perform the assessment, the members of the panel examined a representative sample of grants in 40 countries in different risk categories, drawing conclusions and making recommendations. The panel visited 12 of those countries and made recommendations to help strengthen the Global Fund’s financial controls and anti-corruption protections. This review is part of a broader set of measures that continue to be implemented to strengthen the Global Fund’s financial safeguards.

© 2011 The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

PDF files containing the Final Report of the High-Level Independent Review Panel on Fiduciary Controls and Oversight Mechanisms of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.