adminAllegations that the National Aids Council spent $70 000 to send some of its officials to the International Aids Society Conference from 22 to 27 July 2012 in Washington DC are depressing. The allegations are a cause for concern because they are coming at a time when the country has been hit by erratic supplies of anti-retroviral drugs in public health institutions countrywide.
Patients in need of the drugs have been forced to switch to drug combinations, which compromise
their health. Some hospitals are said to be offering ARVs meant for children to adults. At least 400 000 receive the life prolonging drugs at selected Government hospitals. Could it be that as a country, we don’t know our priorities? Honestly how can the NAC be spending so much money sending officials to trips when the country is said to be short of ARVs. Civil society is justified to call for transparency in the use of the Aids Levy.
The levy, otherwise known as the National Aids Trust Fund, is three percent of income tax collected every month.
Following the introduction of the use of multiple currencies in 2009, the Aids Levy has proved to be an important source of domestic funding. In 2009 NAC collected $5,7 million in Aids Levy.
The collections increased to $20,5 million in 2010 and $26,4 million last year.
According to NAC about 40 percent of the levy goes towards administration and programming while the remaining is for treatment and prevention. We feel the 40 percent is too high a figure to be allocated for administration and programming. NAC uses 10 percent for prevention, 50 percent treatment, six percent monitoring, evaluation and coordination, five percent goes to advocacy, 25 percent to programme support and logistics and four percent to capital expenditure. Spending $1,32 million on advocacy is unjustified.
“To put the statistics into perspective, an amount of more than $1,32 million was used for advocacy purposes by NAC.
“By any standards, this is a significant figure given the fact that advocacy is not NAC’s strongest programme,” said Mr Tapuwa Kujinga of PATAM.
NAC’s delegation to the Washington DC conference was too big. Some of the functions assigned to two or more people could have been done by one person.
The Aids Levy was a brilliant idea that Government came up with to mobilise funding to tackle HIV and Aids. But NAC seems to be losing the plot because of the manner it is handling the money.
The civil society groups that have demanded explanations from NAC over the way it is handling its finances and the Washington DC trip should be given satisfactory explanations. Those charged with managing public funds should always uphold transparency and accountability. The NAC officials should be able to enumerate the benefits the country derived from their attendance at the Washington DC conference.
The culture of extravagance seems to be permeating at an alarming rate into nearly every Zimbabwean society. We have witnessed councillors and Members of Parliament stampede for payment for services rendered which negates the objective of running for public office. There is a growing cancer in Zimbabwe where the leadership at various levels is scrambling for the gravy train at the expense of the people and country. Fine the Global Fund provides the majority of ARVs in the public health sector but we can channel more of what we collect from Aids Levy to buying the drugs.
Online Reporter