Report: AIDS Fund Needs More Money
By JIM ABRAMS
WASHINGTON (AP) — An international fund that is a key to the Bush administration’s $15 billion plan to fight global AIDS is threatened by a lack of money, according to a congressional report made public Wednesday.
The report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative wing of Congress, could bolster the argument of some that the administration needs to do more to support the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Last week the House, in an overwhelming vote, responded to President Bush’s urging and passed a five-year, $15 billion package that could nearly triple current U.S. contributions to the worldwide effort to prevent the spread of AIDS and treat some of the more than 40 million people worldwide infected with the deadly virus.
While most of that money would be in the form of direct aid to 14 sub-Saharan African and Caribbean countries, the legislation also allows for spending of up to $1 billion in fiscal 2004 for Global Fund programs. The administration is seeking $1 billion in total over the five years of the program.
The Global Fund was created by a consensus among Western nations, other donor nations, activists and the United Nations. It has been working since January 2002.
The GAO report generally praised the Fund’s efforts to assure its grants are being disbursed quickly and used effectively.
Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, said his panel had enthusiastically supported the president’s efforts to establish the Global Fund but “we are aware of the vulnerability of any organization awarding large sums of money in countries that are poorly governed and often corrupt.”
The GAO also warned that a lack of resources “threatens the Fund’s ability to approve and finance additional grants.” It said the Fund currently has less than $300 million to support the next round of grants later this year, well short of the Fund’s projections that it will receive $1.6 billion in technically sound proposals.
Dr. Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance, said groups in Africa are saying that the Fund is creating new momentum for the fight against the disease. But he said the GAO report indicates that the Fund’s ability to continue its work “is compromised by the lack of full support from President Bush.”
Health and Human Services Department Secretary Tommy Thompson, testifying before Kolbe’s subcommittee, said, “The president and I are committed to making the Fund work.” Thompson is chairman of the Fund’s board.
Richard Feachem, executive director of the Fund, told the panel that about 37 percent of the pledges through 2004 are expected to come from the United States, and that he and Thompson are working to increase cooperation from other members of the Group of Eight before the summit of Western nations in Evian, France, next month.
Lawmakers also expressed concern about a provision in the House-passed bill to name a new HIV/AIDS coordinator working out of the State Department and responsible for approving all international AIDS programs.
Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, top Democrat on the subcommittee, said she feared the coordinator’s office would just add another layer of bureaucracy and “create confusion and lack of program coherence in affected countries.”
But Thompson said that with the new and massive infusion of money the president “wants one person absolutely focused on the issue.”
“The president is absolutely passionate about this,” Thompson said. “He wants this program to work.”
The Senate is expected to take up its version of the AIDS funding package as early as next week.
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