UGANDA: Foreign envoys demand action against Global Fund culprits

Kampala, 23 August 2006 (PlusNews) - European envoys in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, have asked the government to take "expeditious" action against individuals, including senior politicians, accused of mismanaging HIV/AIDS grants.

A group of diplomats, among them the Dutch ambassador to Uganda, Yoka Brandt, met with Ugandan Minister for Ethics and Integrity James Nsaba Buturo on Monday and urged his government to act urgently in prosecuting ministry of health officials who allegedly mismanaged money from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

In August 2005, the Global Fund temporarily suspended grants amounting to more than US $200 million, citing "serious mismanagement", but lifted the suspension in November 2005 after assurances by the government that it would look into the matter.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni appointed a judicial commission of inquiry, which recommended in its report that three former health ministers - Jim Muhwezi, Alex Kamugisha and Mike Mukula - undergo further questioning with a view to prosecution for perjury, causing financial loss and uttering false documents.

"We were of the view that aspects of a criminal ... [nature] in the report be picked up straight away and in a speedy manner, and the minister told us that a government White Paper on the issue is being formulated," Brandt told PlusNews, adding that the government action would be a clear sign of its commitment to fighting graft.

Other foreign envoys at the meeting included the Danish ambassador and diplomats from the Swedish and Irish embassies, all of whom expressed a wish to see the fight against corruption in Uganda start at the top.

Buturo said the diplomats were concerned at the slow implementation of the judicial commission of inquiry report. "I told them that there is a procedure that has to be followed in this case, because the President is still studying the report before it will be sent to cabinet, a White Paper developed and the report made public," he told PlusNews.

The health ministry and some nongovernmental organisations had refunded money taken from the Global Fund grants, Buturo said, while "the police, through the Criminal Investigations Department, is handling the Global Fund affair, and some people have already been questioned".

Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]