Nonprofit Global Disease Fund Lacks in Fighting Fraud, Review Finds

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria lacks adequate measures for scrutinizing budgets and ensuring accountability in how its grants are spent, according to a review led by a former U.S. health secretary, Bloomberg reports.

The $22-billion fund, which has been wracked by reports of corruption in the past year, also faces “accelerating deterioration” of its finances as donor governments cut spending, according to a committee led by Michael Leavitt, a former Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The Global Fund, which has spent more than $13-billion on anti-disease efforts in the developing world since 2002, appointed the review panel in March amid reports of misappropriation of money and medications in recipient countries.

The U.S. government has given $4-billion and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation $650-million to the fund.

In a statement, the Global Fund said it welcomes the findings and is “totally committed to making the necessary changes.”