Transcript

Duration: 3 min 52 sec

KHOPOTSO: In a telephone interview with the Global Fund’€™s Director of Communications, Jon Liden, at the Fund’€™s head-quarters in Geneva, this is what he had to say about the delay in processing the South African grants.

JON LIDEN -‘€œNormally, there is a process between the signing of a grant agreement and the first disbursement’€¦ And that process, on the average – of all our countries – is around 40 days.’€                

KHOPOTSO: More than double that time has come and gone for South Africa to make a request since the agreement was signed in August for the $42 million to fund loveLife, the Enhancing Care Initiative in KwaZulu-Natal, Soul City as well as government’€™s AIDS and TB programmes. This is funding for the first two years of the projects out of an approved total of $257 million required over five years. Although Jon Liden acknowledged the delay in the government’€™s claim of the money, he was diplomatic about it.

JON LIDEN ‘€“ ‘€œNo, it’€™s not by any way the longest, but it is among the slower procedures that we’€™ve had. But (it’€™s) nothing really out of the ordinary. In many cases, of course, we are talking about large amounts of money in countries that are not very well prepared to receive a large amount of money. In South Africa, you would believe that there are a lot of routines and financial mechanisms in place, so this should not take such a long time. But these are all issues that the South African recipients and the South African government need to discuss and not the Global Fund. From our side, we are ready to disburse once the South Africans are ready to receive money.’€        

KHOPOTSO: Efforts to get comment from the Department of Health as well as Treasury, the Principal Recipient of the Global Fund money for South Africa, have failed.

Dr Garth Japhet is the Executive Director of Soul City, which is expecting $2.3 million for one year of funding. He has no clue when his organisation will receive the money.

What sort of impact has the delayed disbursement of funds had on Soul City’€™s projects?

Dr GARTH JAPHET ‘€“ ‘€œWell, it did in that it made planning very difficult’€¦ in terms of trying to do cash-flow projections and, in fact, our donors all want us to give them accurate reflections of when we’€™re going to get money and how much money we need from them and at what time. And this uncertainty around the Global Fund has made that incredibly difficult, which has made planning difficult, which in turn has had an impact on us.’€      

KHOPOTSO: But fortunately for Soul City, it has funds from the British Department for International Development to continue its projects, in the meantime. Dr Japhet said he is disappointed at not having the Global Fund money yet. He laid the blame at the door of the SANAC, the country co-ordinating mechanism.

Dr GARTH JAPHET ‘€“ ‘€œThe difficulty, really, has been’€¦ it’€™s taken a while for South Africa’€™s own mechanism to get into place to deal with the Global Fund. And as a result of the fact that those mechanisms haven’€™t been properly in place it’€™s been very difficult to interact with the Global Fund and to find out what’€™s going on.’€

KHOPOTSO: loveLife, another beneficiary, was not available for comment. Prof. Ronald Green-Thompson is Superintendent-General of Health and spokes-person for the Enhancing Care Initiative ‘€“ another recipient of the Global Fund grant – in

KwaZulu-Natal. He was dismissive when I asked him for comment. All he could say was that he failed to see any ‘€œdelay on the part of government’€ in claiming the money. But, clearly, this is a major concern for the Global Fund itself. Jon Liden, once again.

JON LIDEN ‘€“ ‘€œWe are as impatient as any of the people who would need this money and need the programmes put in place. We are as concerned about getting this to move as anyone else is.’€    

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