WASHINGTON – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) said it has suspended all five of its grants to the Tropical Disease Foundation (TDF) in the Philippines because of misuse of funds.
In a press statement last Friday on its website, the Geneva-based GFATM said about $1 million out of total disbursements of $85 million to TDF were spent on activities beyond the terms of the grant agreement.
It demanded repayment of the unauthorized expenditures.
TDF is a principal recipient of five grants: one for tuberculosis and two each for HIV/AIDS and malaria. Its total grant portfolio amounts to $195,225,660.
The Global Fund said it intends to transfer the grants to new principal recipients based on recommendations from the Country Coordinating Mechanism in the Philippines and expects that normal grant activities can resume quickly.
All necessary measures will be taken to ensure that life-saving treatment and prevention activities financed by the Global Fund will not be disrupted, pending the signing of agreements with the new principal recipients, it stressed.
Currently, there are 636 people on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment in the Philippines and 811 people being treated for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, the statement said.
Other grants awarded earlier to the Department of Health and Pilipinas Shell Foundation will not be affected by this suspension, the statement added.
Global Fund, established in 2002, is the largest international provider of funds to combat malaria and tuberculosis. It also provides 20 percent of all international funding to combat HIV/AIDS.
The STAR yesterday tried to get a comment from TDF president Dr. Thelma Tupasi but to no avail.
According to Department of Health (DOH) director Dr. Yolanda Oliveros, the suspension could lead to delays in the implementation of programs against TB, malaria and AIDS, the coverage of the TDF grants.
“There may be some delays but the programs won’t be stopped totally because the Global Fund will look for new recipients in place of TDF,” she told The STAR.
Oliveros said the designs of the TDF programs were “supportive of the national program” but the foundation has its own financial system.
“It complements the national program so that 100 percent of the goals can be achieved.” –-Jose Katigbak (The Philippine Star) with Sheila Crisostomo
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