Good intentions, bad abuses

Good intentions, bad abuses

Kansas City Star: Maybe the shocking reports that corruption eats huge chunks of the money flowing through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria carry an important lesson for all of us: Just because famous people support a thing doesn’t make it a sound enterprise.

To be fair, the abuses of the funds were committed by those allegedly using the cash on the ground to help people. The fund itself was getting the money to those claiming they would help.

But too often it didn’t turn out that way. A new audit shows 67 percent of the money that went into Mauritania for health programs was taken through faked invoices and documents. Elsewhere, workers were created, or their names forged, so others could claim per diems and expenses. Cars and motorcycles were bought without receipts. In perhaps the most frustrating form of abuse, when people donated malaria drugs to avoid the potential theft of money, the drugs were stolen and sold on the black market.

It wasn’t long ago that Bono was urging support for the fund, and Bill and Melinda Gates have been donating $150 million a year. The fund was set up as a way to get around the bureaucracy of the United Nations, and there is no doubt it has also done much good.

But the scope of these abuses serves as a good reminder that strict oversight is the best tool to curb waste and fraud. The role of inspectors general must be protected and expanded.