‘Nitpicking’ stalls $100m AIDS grant to India

Bureaucratic nitpicking by the Indian Government has delayed a $US100 million grant from a global anti-AIDS fund, a report said on Tuesday.

Bureaucratic nitpicking by the Indian Government has delayed a $US100 million grant from a global anti-AIDS fund, a report said on Tuesday. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), a joint public-private initiative set up by the United Nations, approved the grant to India in January. But Indian Government rules have delayed the money being handed over, the Times of India reported. Meenakshi Dutta Ghosh, project director of India’s National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), said that the sticking point was a government clause which says funds must be disbursed every quarter based upon performance. “This disbursement is subject to the availability of money with the GFATM. We cannot accept an agreement where there is no predictablity of funds,” she said.But she said negotiations were continuing and the response was positive, although fund officials said that they were disappointed with the pace of talks. “The discussion has been very, very protracted. We regret this, and we find it disappointing because we are aware of the urgency to expand HIV prevention and treatment in India. This is the time bomb of the AIDS pandemic,” Richard Feachem, the fund’s executive director, said. “There is no set deadline, but the board always has the option to decide that the money can be used elsewhere if the accepting and signing process is taking so long,” he added. India has 4.58 million people living with HIV/AIDS, second only to South Africa, which has an infected population of around five million.(Source: ABC Online News Dec 2003)