Ukraine might lose $301.7 million in grant money from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria if the government doesn’t get its act together by Dec. 15.
If there’s any nation that needs this money, it’s Ukraine. The nation has about 360,000 HIV positive people, the worst rate in Europe.
The grant at risk, meanwhile, is almost 40 times more than projected state spending for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment from 2009-2013.
“We would like to remind you that the grant approval expiration deadline of R10 HIV [10th round] is fixed at Dec. 15, 2011,” reads a letter to members of the National Council for the Prevention of Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, written by Nicolas Cantau, the Global Fund’s portfolio manager in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. “After this date the grant will no longer be considered approved for funding.”
However, Nataliya Biloshchytska from the State Service of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment, said the grant will be signed.
“Everything is under control,” Biloshchytska said. “The only reason it took so long was trouble finding the place where the new reorganized Ukrainian AIDS Center will be situated.”
Others aren’t so sure, saying the problem stems from legendary bureaucracy and the government’s poor track record in managing grants.
The Global Fund has approved the applications of two NGOs: the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine. A third potential recipient is the Ukrainian AIDS Center, which works under the Ukrainian Health Ministry.
However, to meet Global Fund requirements, recipients need to meet conditions, inspections and audits. The NGOs are able to do so, but the Ukrainian AIDS Center doesn’t appear to be ready to operate as a principal recipient.
As a consequence, the entire $301.7 million grant could be lost to Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian financial system of foreign currency usage regulation is rather strict and multi-step,” said Nataliia Nizova, director of the Ukrainian AIDS Center. “
The Global Fund and Ukrainian AIDS Center have been trying to find solutions, including passing a law that allows the AIDS center to bypass normal state requirements.
Anna Koshikova of the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV said the problems were predictable. “We pointed to these risks, but the authorities insisted on signing that law and promised to do everything in time,” Koshikova said.
Andriy Klepikov, executive director of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine, says that indifference is part of the problem. “The higher the rank of the officials, the less interest they show in the problem,” Klepikov said.
Time will tell whether the situation becomes another tragedy that costs lives.
“The epidemic is getting worse in Ukraine,” says Klepikov. “If we don’t do something to prevent the epidemic, it will become generalized and will spread on the whole population.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]
