Global Fund to assess grants given to Zim

co-ordinating mechanism (CCM) Dr Henry Madzorera, the audit would be carried between 22 October and 23 November.
GF releases funds to governments that successfully apply every year, which is known as a round.

The audit for Zimbabwe would be on round eight whose funds were released in 2009 and round 10 for 2011.
GF inspector general Mr John Parsons said the audit was meant to assess efficiency and effectiveness of grants, measure soundness of systems to safeguard GF resources and confirm compliance by the country to agreed policies and procedures.

He said the audit was also meant to identify any risks grants could be exposed to and measures put in place to mitigate the risks.
It is expected to make recommendations on management of the GF grants based on outcomes of the audit.
“Our audit will cover the operations of the Global Fund supported programmes to Zimbabwe as managed by the United Nations Development Programme, a sample of sub recipients, CMM, the local fund agent and the global fund secretariat,” said Mr Parsons.

He said the month-long audit would involve meetings with the CCM chair Dr Madzorera and other recipients, audit of receipts, disbursements and expenditures of funds and field visits to sites.

“We intend to carry out the audit in an efficient and effective manner whilst causing the minimum disruption to the daily work of the auditees,” said Mr Parsons.
He said all supporting documents should be made available to the audit team by November 16 to avoid a call for recovery of unaccounted funds. This is the second time GF requested to audit grants given to Zimbabwe. The first audit was done in 2008 following allegations that some grants meant for GF programmes were diverted by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

“The difference between the 2008 audit and this one is that this time there is no suspicion of abuse of funds.
“It is part of their routine audits,” said GF co-ordinator for Zimbabwe Mr Rangarirai Chiteure.