Global Fund officials cleared of corruption charges

The four senior officials in the Ministry of Health who were being investigated for alleged misappropriation of Global Fund resources by flouting tender procedures have been cleared of any wrong doing. Investigations found the officials Dr. Daniel Ngamije, the Coordinator of the Project Management Unit (PMU) of the Global Fund, Jean Pierre Munyabugingo, a Procurement Specialist at the PMU, Jean Baptiste Gatabazi, the Head of the Microbiology Unit at the National Reference Laboratory and Emmanuel Ruzindana, the head of the Parastology Unit did not in any way interfere with the tender processes. In an interview with The New Times, Dr. Anita Asiimwe, the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for the Fight against HIV/AIDS (CNLS), the officials who have since been on forced leave, have been recalled to their positions after investigations revealed that they had been wrongly accused. “As I had told you earlier, Police has been investigating this case but it has been found that the officials have been victims of blackmail and there is no evidence of corruption whatsoever. The preliminary police report has been forwarded to the Minister of Health” Asiimwe said. She added that investigations were sparked of by an email from an anti-corruption organisation only identified as Private Eye Anti-corruption which alleged that the above officials had ignored tender procedures to favour a supplier over others, to supply equipment for the National Reference Laboratory. “We have come to believe that this group is non-existent because there are no details about it. The tenders were given out in conformity with the rules and these must be disgruntled people who could have lost out on the bid and wanted to tarnish the name of the officials and the country” Dr. Asiimwe said. She said that the purported anti-corruption group had copied the email to the Global Fund head offices in Geneva, a move she suspects worse aimed at soiling the country’s accountability record for Global Fund support. Following expeditious investigation into the case, Police is currently investigating the source of the email to bring the individuals to book for possible blackmail and impersonation charges according to Asiimwe. Efforts to locate more details on the Private Eye Anti-corruption have been futile as there is no physical address or online information on the group. Ends