A CONGRESSWOMAN from Iloilo City calls for a comprehensive investigation on the controversial P46 million donation of the Global Fund for the HIV/Aids, Malaria, and Tuberculosis program of the Health department.
Representative Janet Garin said the Global Fund, one of the country’s biggest donors for HIV/Aids programs, has suspended all its five grants to the Tropical Disease Foundation (TDF) in the Philippines after reports of unauthorized expenditure.
Garin said the Global Fund donated $85 million and some $1 million or about P46 million that were allegedly spent on activities beyond the terms of the grant agreement.
The foundation is being supervised by the Department of Health (DOH) through the Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) co-chaired by the Health Secretary.
Garin said that amid alarming reports on the rise of HIV/Aids cases in the country, the National Government must immediately assess and investigate its intervention on the awareness of the Filipinos on the issue.
She lamented that the government is not doing enough to ensure effective programs to combat HIV/Aids in the country.
“The mismanagement of the funds from the country’s biggest donor for health programs is one proof of the lack of seriousness in fighting this disease,” she said.
She calls on concerned authorities to take the necessary actions to know what really transpired and what the accountability of the DOH is, as it performs a supervisory role in the implementation of the Global Fund Grants.
Garin, also a medical doctor, is an active advocate of the reproductive health (RH) bill being one of its co-authors. The current Congress leadership has bypassed in its deliberations the RH bill before it adjourned last week.