RBZ pays back missing millions after Global Fund suspends Zim grants

 

The group froze its donations to Zimbabwe on Thursday after the central bank was found to have diverted US$7.3 million from funds meant to help millions of seriously ill people. The missing money was part of the US$12.3 million grant from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria’.

Zimbabwe’s government requires that all foreign donations to non-governmental organisations be sent through the RBZ and civic groups have suggested that the funds were spent by the bank on drumming up political support for ZANU PF, particularly in the run-up to elections in March and June this year.

 

Global Fund executive director Michel Kazatchkine announced on Monday that the donor group had ordered that funds under its administration in Zimbabwe be placed under the Additional Safeguards Policy (ASP), which aims to ensure that funding is used for its intended purpose and not to benefit the government. On Thursday the group then announced that it had immediately suspended its current operation in Zimbabwe and said it will

not make the 2009 payment for more than US$600 million. At its meeting in India on Thursday, Kazatchkine said the group will not sign any new grants, even if the fund board approves future grants to Zimbabwe, unless that money is fully recovered.

 

Zimbabwe’s central bank, whose Governor Gideon Gono has been quoted in correspondence with the Global Fund saying that the missing money was used for other national priorities, has now returned the US$7.3 million.

 

The Global Fund greatly appreciates this development which will accelerate the live-saving activities of the malaria, tuberculosis and HIV programs in Zimbabwe, Global Fund’s Kazatchkine said Friday.

 

The group’s board was expected to consider a request by the government for an additional US$400 million in health care funds. Kazatchkine said the central bank had also agreed that recipients of aid from the Global Fund would be able to use U.S. dollars for all transactions in Zimbabwe, eliminating foreign exchange and inflation risks.

 

However, it is still not clear if future donations will be made directly to recipient aid groups, despite NGOs and the United States Ambassador calling for donations via the RBZ to be halted.