By Nseobong Okon-Ekong
The Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr. Gambo Aliyu, has debunked the news that the agency was queried over grants from the Global Fund, and stressed that “there is no fraud or misappropriation whatsoever in NACA as is being insinuated.”
Aliyu made the clarification yesterday after some newspapers and online publications had claimed that the agency was queried in 2016 for allegedly not releasing documents about grants it received from the Global Fund in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.
He, however, expressed shock over the ‘misleading’ report and attributed the controversy over non-release of audit report documents to miscommunication.
The director general reiterated that it is inconceivable for anybody to assume that donor funds could be mismanaged without repercussions as the procedures for accessing and disbursing foreign grants are so stringent and rigorous that it would impossible to embezzle such funds.
He stated that the amount of money the NACA received and the agency’s audit report documents were public information that could be accessed from the NACA and several independent bodies, including the Global Fund and its appointed auditors.
Aliyu said: “Let me state categorically that there is no misappropriation or fraud whatsoever that has been recorded in the period under question. Again, I insist that there is no fraud or misappropriation in the 2016 and 2017 money that came from the Global Fund that I have seen or that has been reported by the Global Fund or auditors of the Global Fund. The Global Fund has an auditing firm called Deloitte Akintola Williams and Co, which does an annual audit of the Global Fund money that is given to any agent – whether it is in the government or private sector.
“Before any Global Fund money is spent, there is what is called fiduciary agent that reviews all payments even before they are made. And this agent has to sign before that money is paid. Apart from the annual auditors and apart from implementing partner’s auditors (NACA auditors), the work is done together with them (Global Fund). There is also post-payment audit called local fund agent (LFA), which reviews all payments to identify or detect whether there is misappropriation or fraud. If there is a fraud, they raise alarm and that alarm is raised to the Global Fund country agent – not to the NACA. Finally, here in Nigeria, there is a country coordinating mechanism that oversees how disbursed money from the Global Fund is spent by various agents.”
He expressed surprise that the NACA is accused of hiding information, stressing that somebody was probably up to a mischief. “There is no fraud or any money misappropriated in NACA and there is no information that has been denied by the NACA – either during my tenure or before I came. I became the DG in 2019 and there is nobody that has requested for information in NACA that has been denied, even if that information is about activities that happened before my tenure. I definitely suspect that somebody is out to give the NACA a bad name in order to achieve certain things. We know that we have introduced reforms in NACA that everybody is happy with. The Global Fund is happy with our reforms and that is why it is giving the NACA more resources to manage. If the Global Fund has any doubt about the NACA’s capacity or transparency or accountability, they would not make money available to the NACA,” he said.
