Global Fund - a view from an NGO's perspective (4)
--------------------------------------------------
Dear Claudio Schuftan and colleagues,
Thank you for your posting about the Global Fund reporting on a July
7 meeting.
There is a legitimate concern about accountability and transparency
with the Global Fund...... but the lack of accountability and trans-
parency has been with us for decades already in the whole arena of
official development assistance (ODA) and the related humanitarian
and emergency support efforts.
There are quite easy ways to get accountability and transpar-
ency...... simply put.... there has to be accounting..... and the ac-
counting has to be visible and accessible. It is entirely possible to
have excellence in accounting that is easy to do and more important,
easy to see and understand...... but there is enormous resistance to
any such implementation.
The resistance comes from the big software houses that want complex
and expensive solutions.... the resistance comes from the established
bureaucracy that is fearful of being seen for what it is...... the
resistance comes from beneficiary countries that maybe do not want a
precedent for tracking fund flows..... the resistance comes from or-
ganizations that benefit from a certain opaqueness in the way ODA
funds are used..... and so forth.
The groups that want better accounting and accountability are the
PUBLIC in the NORTH and in the SOUTH..... and the committed profes-
sionals throughout the ODA community who know what funds are avail-
able and what funds are wasted, but cannot ever make their case be-
cause the data is just not readily available.
The technology to do what needs to be done is available..... we are
building a prorotype system to demonstrate what we are talking about.
If anyone is interested in learning more...... or joining in......
please let me know.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Peter Burgess
--
T. Peter Burgess
VP and CFO ATCnet
New York, USA
Tel: +1-212-772-6918
Fax: +1-707-371-7805
mailto:profitinafrica@aol.com
mailto:hivaidsstories@aol.com
http://www.atcnet.org
--
To send a message to AFRO-NETS, write to: afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe afro-nets OR unsubscribe afro-nets
To contact a person, send a message to: afro-nets-help@usa.healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.afronets.org