By Our Staff Writer
“There was systemic fraud and misappropriation by staff of the Ministry of Health (MoH), a Principal Recipient for Global Fund grants in Liberia. Our investigation found non-compliant expenditures and/or various types of wrongdoing in 91% of the expenditures reviewed. Non-compliant expenditures totalled US$1.1 million, of which we recommend recovery of US$0.99 million,” says an April 8, 2022 investigation of the Global Fund Grant in Liberia.
This is a latest in a series of investigative reports/audits pointing to widespread corruption in various Liberian government entities amounting to millions of US dollars over the past years.
The latest report, published in Geneva, Switzerland by the Global Fund Inspector General (OIG), is titled, “fraudulent and abusive practices in Global Fund programs, but the Liberian Health Ministry has reacted to the report ruling out massive corruption in the management of this grant in Liberia.
The office of the OIG safeguards the Global Fund’s assets, investments, reputation and sustainability by ensuring that it takes the right action to end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. According to information from the Fund, this is done through audits, investigations and advisory work to promote good practice, enhance risk management and reports fully and transparently.
According to the report, the Global Fund Secretariat “was aware of fraud red flags and other wrongdoing in Liberian Ministry of Health-managed grants from 2015, but did not report the matters at issue in this investigation to the Office of the Inspector General.”
Here are key findings detailed in the latest OIG report from pages 6-14:
2.1 US$0.52 million in grant funds were wasted or misused for the mother peer program and
travel-related costs 6
2.2 Non-compliance with policies, insufficient controls and a lack of oversight has led to no assurance over program delivery in 75% of cases reviewed, totalling $0.4 million 7
2.3 Procurement fraud totalling US$0.19 million for vehicle repairs and advertising services, due to non-compliance with policies, insufficient controls and a lack of oversight 9
2.4 MoH concealed improper payments of fuel taxes of at least US$0.16 million 11
2.5 MoH controls, policies and oversight were either insufficient or overridden 12
2.6 Fiscal Agent oversight was ineffective, and its personnel engaged in conflicts of interest
and misappropriation of grant funds 13
2.7 The Global Fund Secretariat did not report fraud and other wrongdoing to the OIG
But in a press release issued by the Ministry of Information on Thursday, April 14, 2020, the Health Ministry said:
“We believe the vigorous system of check and balance the Global Fund Grant management system has in place at the Ministry of health along with our robust Financial Management System and many years of managing grants we can safely say it’s impossible to engage in massive corruptions without being detected over a long period of time as it has been portrayed by the OIG report. OIG findings declared an aggregate expenditure summing up to US$990,000 (Nine Hundred and Ninety Thousand United States dollars) noncompliant and recommended restitution.”
It further states: “The Ministry believes restituting this amount is unfair and firmly disagrees with some of the reasonings behind the OIG’s conclusion. We however concede that some amount must be restituted depending on the circumstances. For example, the draft OIG report shows that some people received money as daily subsistence allowances (DSAs) for a given number of days but spent less number of days on the field. Those who fall in this category are among the persons being investigated. Stipulation to restitute the DSAs for the number of days not accounted for will certainly form a part of the recommendations of the investigation.”
According to the OIG report, the genesis of the reported fraud found in the management of the Global Fund grant in Liberia dates back to 2020.
“In January 2020, OIG received reports of suspected fraud and other wrongdoing at the National AIDS Control Program (NACP), a Global Fund grant implementer under the Ministry of Health.[1] In response, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) opened an investigation, undertaking a field mission to Liberia in November 2020,” the OIG report said.
Meanwhile, Liberia’s Health Ministry announced that it has established a committee “to carry out detailed reviews of the report and to further investigate allegations contained in count one the report.”
The internal investigation committee will determine the level of wrongdoings and recommend actions against those accused, depending on the levels of culpability, the Health Ministry added.