Medicine Theft at the Global Fund: Too Little Too Late?

Evidence I’ve gathered over the past two years (see here and here) demonstrates that global aid programs’ donated medicines are being stolen. In some instances up to 30 percent of malaria drugs (amounting to millions of treatments) are going missing. The main donor of these drugs is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. After initially largely ignoring the problem of the theft and then claiming evidence of the threat was merely anecdotal, the Global Fund announced last Friday the need for serious action against the theft of medicines.

This is a most welcome advance. Unfortunately the Fund has a habit of simply moving from one recipient to another after a fraud is exposed. While it is more transparent than other multilateral donors about fraud, it still doesn’t fight recipient nation corruption significantly. Without properly exposing the guilty, it is likely the guilty will still benefit in the future, especially in locations where political connections are more important than competence or honesty. The sad but true fact about multilateral aid agencies, including the Fund, is that getting funds out the door is more important than ensuring that only the competent and honest receive the funds.