An investigation of the Global Fund’s malaria grant in Guyana covering two and half years up to June 2015, has unearthed irregularities including falsification of data and fraudulent expenditures amounting to over $11 million which the international organisation will seek to recover.
“The investigation found a series of irregularities relating to the inflation of programmatic data, the fabrication of underlying programmatic documentation, and anomalies in fuel consumption and ‘per diem’ claims. These irregularities affected expenditures totaling US$72,973 which the OIG considers to be non-compliant, and therefore potentially recoverable,” the report by the Global Fund’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) says.
The OIG said that these irregularities were facilitated by the inadequate management of the Global Fund malaria programme by the Vector Control Services (VCS) of the Ministry of Health, which included poor record-keeping and a failure to respond to Global Fund Secretariat Management Actions.
“The overall management of the Global Fund malaria program by the ex-director of VCS and the standard of oversight exercised by an ex-VCS senior Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) technician were inadequate. The OIG considers that this poor oversight facilitated the fraudulent misrepresentation and other irregularities identified in the investigation,” the report, seen by Stabroek News, says.
The investigation covered the period January 1, 2013 to June 30, 2015.
