‘€œThe appointment of this panel is part of the Global Fund commitment to ensuring our financial controls are the most robust possible, and that donor investments go directly to fighting AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis,’€ said Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund.

‘€œSound financial controls and anti-corruption protections are essential elements in our continued ability to save millions of lives, and to facilitating social and economic development in the more than 140 countries we support.’€

The announcement follows reports that the U$21.7 billion development fund sees as much as two-thirds of some grants eaten up by corruption.

According to media reports quoting Global Fund investigators much of the money is accounted for with forged documents or improper bookkeeping, indicating it was pocketed.

Donated prescription drugs wind up being sold on the black market.

The fund’s newly reinforced inspector general’s office, which uncovered the corruption, can’t give an overall accounting because it has examined only a tiny fraction of the U$10 billion that the fund has spent since its creation in 2002.

A full 67 percent of money spent on an anti-AIDS program in Mauritania was misspent, the investigators told the fund’s board of directors. So did 36 percent of the money spent on a program in Mali to fight tuberculosis and malaria, and 30 percent of grants to Djibouti.

In Zambia, where U$3.5 million in spending was undocumented and one accountant pilfered U$104,130, the fund decided the nation’s health ministry simply couldn’t manage the grants and put the United Nations in charge of them. The fund is trying to recover U$7 million in “unsupported and ineligible costs” from the ministry.

The two co-chairs will select a small group of eminent persons and experts to join the panel. Over the next several months, the panel will assess the Global Fund’€™s   current practices in financial oversight and implementation. The panel will also make recommendations where necessary to help strengthen the Global Fund’€™s fiscal controls and anti-corruption protections. This review is part of a broader set of measures that continue to be implemented to strengthen the Global Fund’€™s financial safeguards.

The independent review panel will report to the Board of the Global Fund. The panel’€™s findings will be made public.

Leavitt served under President George W. Bush as Secretary of Health and Human Services from 2005 to 2009.

Mogae was President of Botswana from 1998 to 2008. He won the 2008 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African leadership in recognition of his record of good governance as President.

* The Global Fund is a global public/private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities represents a new approach to international health financing. The Global Fund works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral organisations to supplement existing efforts dealing with the three diseases.