Uganda is expe­ri­enc­ing a short­age of funds for HIV/AIDS relief. $4.8 mil­lion dol­lars was due to be given to the coun­try five months ago but it has yet to be received.

Med­ical pro­fes­sion­als are being told to stop enrolling new patients into the pro­gram, and some already enrolled patients are unable to receive treatment.

Some red tape and mis­takes are delay­ing release of the funds, and the Global Fund says the money will now arrive early next year.

From All Africa, writer Esther Nakkazi explains what happened.

“As I speak now, I have a let­ter ask­ing me to stop enrolling chil­dren. Even if all fac­tors remain con­stant we still need the gov­ern­ment to help or we shall not achieve uni­ver­sal access,” said Prof Addy Kek­i­ti­inwa, the exec­u­tive direc­tor of Bay­lor Uganda Children’s Foundation.

The lat­est cut is by the US President’s Emer­gency Plan for Aids Relief (Pep­far), the largest fun­der of HIV pro­grammes in Uganda, which announced that from April next year it will slash close to $1 mil­lion from the $7 mil­lion annual con­tri­bu­tion it have been mak­ing to the pae­di­atric HIV programme.

Although the Global Fund kitty is avail­able, it is not yet accessible.

Offi­cials from the Min­istry of Health say the money has been dis­bursed from New York to the Bank of Uganda, but there are admin­is­tra­tive prob­lems that are hin­der­ing its use.

“The Global Fund at first dis­bursed it to the wrong account. When the sig­na­tory to that account was changed, there was fur­ther delay,” said Com­mis­sioner of Plan­ning and Devel­op­ment Dr Fran­cis Runumi.

The sig­na­tory, Mary Nan­nono, the for­mer Health per­ma­nent sec­re­tary, was inter­dicted and replaced in an act­ing capac­ity by Dr Sam Zaramba.

The $4.2 mil­lion, which was sup­posed to be a stop­gap mea­sure, is now expected to be dis­bursed early next year.

Accord­ing to records, at least 70 per cent of the peo­ple who had not accounted for the funds have already been cleared, recov­er­ing at least $1 mil­lion from insti­tu­tions and indi­vid­u­als impli­cated in the misappropriation.

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