Last week, the Global Fund said it had suspended the disbursement of grants to two Federal health agencies in Nigeria, following the discovery of shady practices relating to procurements conducted by them.

In a message, the Executive Director of the Fund, Mr. Mark Dybul, quoted an audit report of multiple grants between 2013 and 2015, carried out by the Office of the Inspector General  (OIG), which indicted the National Agency for Control of AIDS (NACA) and the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), of serial complicity,

The audit report covered US$889 million of Global Fund grants, while unveiling frauds and collusions to the tune of US$3.8 million. The investigation, which began in late 2014 after a spot check from the Global Fund’s Local Fund Agent, uncovered forged and missing expenditure documents. It discovered there was no effective system of internal controls in place to safeguard the funds.

The audit identified lack of documentary evidence related to human resources and payment approval processes, with US$7.65 million identified as unsupported expenditures, amongst other gaps.

The OIG said it found evidence of systematic embezzlement, and identified US$3.8 million of irregular spending in the work of Nigeria’s Department of Health Planning, Research & Statistics (DPRS), a sub-recipient of the Fund. It confirmed that seven out of 10 DPRS staff and three consultants were linked to the misappropriation of funds.

In recent times, thanks to international support, a lot of progress has been made against HIV, TB, and malaria in Nigeria. For instance, deaths from malaria dropped by 62 per cent since 2000; HIV also declined by 52 per cent since that time while deaths from TB have reduced by 13 per cent. Overall, programmes supported by the Global Fund have saved 1.2 million people in Nigeria.

Despite these achievements, Nigeria’s disease burden is still grim. With 24 percent of the world’s cases of malaria (largest in the world); 9 percent of HIV disease burden (second largest in the world), and 7 per cent of the TB burden (also 2nd largest in the world), Nigeria lags behind in many areas.

No doubt, the Global Fund is duty-bound to demand accountability.  However, the suspension of grants to Nigeria is an ill wind that blows no good for healthcare delivery in the country.

We commend the Presidency for quickly wading into this issue. The culprits must be exposed and brought to book to reassure the donor stakeholders of the need to continue to support Nigeria’s disease control efforts.

It is, indeed, pathetic that funds meant to save poor and vulnerable Nigerians from life-threatening diseases are shameless pilfered by to officials sent to execute the programme.

The integrity of the programme must be restored to keep donor funds coming to Nigeria.