Global Fund releases additional audits as part of internal investigation

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Tuesday posted the results of several internal audits, showing "that 12 more probes had turned up an additional $20 million of mismanagement, alleged fraud and misspending," the Associated Press/CBSNews.com reports.

"The fund's board chairman Simon Bland told the Associated Press it has now reviewed about one-seventh of $14 billion in grants disbursed but it would be misleading to extrapolate the percentage of corruption turning up in fund programs," and that "the fund, which has approved more than $22 billion in grants since its creation in 2002 as a major financing tool, is demanding repayment of the money -- and two new cases in Nigeria and India could lead to criminal charges," the AP writes (11/1). Bland told Bloomberg News in a telephone interview on Tuesday, "The Global Fund will not tolerate misuse of funds. ... We're seeing a trajectory of aggressive reclaiming of funds that are misused." According to the news service, "The group has recovered $19 million of misappropriated money so far, most of it in the past 12 months, Bland said" (Bennett, 11/2).