20101128
africanews

The Malawi National AIDS Commission (NAC) has launched the fraud and corruption prevention strategy to create awareness of corruption and fraud issues amongst all implementers of HIV/AIDS activities.

Chairman of NAC Archbishop Emeritus Bernard Malango said the policy is one of the key products of the cooperation that was facilitated by the MOU which they signed with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).

NAC and ACB signed the first MOU in 2008 and has been renewed for three years, which will last in 2013.

“This aims at protecting the huge sums of money donors and the government disburses for the implementation of HIV and AIDS activities. It symbolizes the synergy that our combined efforts infighting corruption can produce,” he said

Government, through NAC, has an annual budget allocation for the Intergraded Annual Work plan of MK13.7 billion of which MK11.6 billion will be disbursed in form of grants to various implementing partners at national, district and community level.

Secretary for Nutrition, HIV and AIDS in the Office of President and Cabinet (OPC) Mary Shawa said the MOU will further help in instilling trust in donors.

“Malawi has a good reputation to donors. Global Fund is no longer giving money to some countries which were the first recipients, but Malawi has maintained the good record all along, which is a milestone,” she said

NAC’s major donor is the Global Fund.

She said the MOU will also help the country to achieve a commitment in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which is to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.

“Malawi has been cited as one of the countries that has made tremendous progress in achieving this goal. So in order to reach there, we need to develop and implement the necessary frameworks and interventions that will enable the organization to effectively address corruption,” she said