GFATM - Transparency and Accountability
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Dear Colleagues,
I am trained in accountancy and became a Chartered Accountant in
the 1960s. One of the things that one learned about in an old
fashioned accountancy training was how to record and report fi-
nancial information. It is not rocket science, but there are
some simple rules. Good reporting is clear and consistent and
timely. Transparency is a newer word, and I do not know of a
Chartered Institute of Transparency, but there might be one, for
all I know.
The Global Fund (GFATM) has now disbursed a substantial sum of
money. It is easy to track this money as being disbursed by the
GFATM. But it is not at all easy to find out what this money was
used for. This is a major problem, and I would argue, one that
makes the whole process a fiasco.
GFATM, I think, argues that this is handled by the PMs (Primary
Recipients) CCM (Country Coordinating Mechanism) and the LFA
(Local Fund Agents) and that might be true on a theoretical or-
ganization chart, but we are talking about actual fund flows and
the use (and value) of these fund flows, whatever that use may
be. I read somewhere that the LFA's are being paid some 42% of
the total admin cost of the GFATM. If that is so, then they
ought to be doing a very much better job.
I may be missing something. Any help I can get to track funds
from GFATM disbursement to end use would be very much appreci-
ated. I have tried to contact a number of LFAs directly, and
they are not at all forthcoming with much useful information. So
much for transparency. Some of the LFA organizations are well
known, and I am disappointed at their unresponsiveness, but not
surprised.
I anyone is interested in joining in with our efforts to get
some more transparency and accountability into the GFATM proc-
ess, please contact me in New York or Kris Dev in India.
Peter Burgess Kris Dev
Tr-Ac-Net in New York Tr-Ac-Net in Chennai
peterbnyc@gmail.com krisdev@gmail.com
tracnet@gmail.com
Tel: +1-212-772-6918
http://www.afrifund.com
http://Tr-Ac-Net.blogspot.com