Global Fund fraud report spurs NACA restructure

An investigation blaming the National Agency for Control of AIDS (NACA) for failing to monitor a Global Fund grant for HIV in the ministry of health has pushed the agency to consider electronic medical record to improve the quality of its data. The Global Fund report found up to $3.82 million dollars of an HIV […]

An investigation blaming the National Agency for Control of AIDS (NACA) for failing to monitor a Global Fund grant for HIV in the ministry of health has pushed the agency to consider electronic medical record to improve the quality of its data.
The Global Fund report found up to $3.82 million dollars of an HIV grant passed down from NACA to the federal health ministry’s department of planning, research and statistics (DPRS) was embezzled.
DPRS was to implement a web-based reporting platform.
But the Fund’s investigators found “extensive evidence of systematic embezzlement, fraudulent practice and collusion”, particularly involving seven DPRS staff and three consultants linked to the programme.
NACA has said it will restructure by deploying a deputy director at the Bureau of Public Procurement to head its procurement.
It will also reorganise for a separate team to focus on managing Global Fund grant.
In addition, it will decentralise how it stores and manages commodities to eight zonal stores using funding from GF and support logistics in all state and the FCT.
The agency said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had been informed of alleged fraud and embezzlement at DPRS well before GF published its findings and was investigating.
In a statement in the wake of GF report, NACA advised state and local governments to “effectively play their roles as the grant is implemented in secondary and primary health facilities owned and managed by them to improve overall quality of the program and other public health programs in Nigeria.”