Global Fund looking at salaries

THE Namibia Coordination Committee on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Naccatum) placed a full-page advertisement in local newspapers yesterday responding to articles which appeared in The Namibian about the procurement of condoms, a salary survey report conducted on the Namibia Global Fund Project Management Unit (PMU) and allegations of mismanagement of Global Fund resources at the PMU.

Naccatum develops grant proposals and oversees the implementation of Global Fund grants in Namibia.Naccatum said the Global Fund found the condoms supplied by Commodity Exchange (ComEx) on the expensive side following a condom costing study.Following the lapse of the supply agreement between ComEx and the Ministry of Health, the Global Fund (GF) secretariat decided to source condoms on the international market through a competitive bidding process as ComEx male condoms cost approximately N$0,60, compared to international price of N$0,20 which ‘was significantly higher than the international reference price’.A ComEx insider recently told The Namibian that with the Smile condoms it was all about quality. ‘If they want a cheap product then we can provide it, but it will be like going back 10 years in time,’ the ComEx source said.Regarding the salary survey, Naccatum has said that it commissioned a survey of all salaries to be paid using GF grants, with the objective of ‘aligning it with existing salaries paid to staff on the same level and complexity in the country’.The Global Fund Inspector General visited Namibia from July 11 to 15, and ‘the preliminary findings of the audit on grants indicate that the performance of the grants is impressive and there are no cases of fraud or mismanagement of funds to warrant the suspension or discontinuation of any of the grants,’ the statements reads.Naccatum has as a result indicated that the ‘implementation of Global Fund grants is not in jeopardy, but not without challenges,’ and once the final audit report has been released, it will be made public.