Nairobi — Kenya is headed for a fresh collision with the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, this time precipitated by civil society.

A total of Sh1.3 billion, released by the Global Fund seven months ago, must be used and accounted for by next month before the body can release the next allocation for HIV programmes.

The standoff between civil groups under the Kenya Consortium to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria and funds recipient, CARE International Kenya, has prompted the National Aids Control Council to call a meeting on Friday.

"Whatever the outcome of the meeting, the Sh1.3 billion cannot be released and utilised before the Global Fund's November deadline," says a consortium member who requested anonymity for fear of jeopardising his group's application.

This could affect the country's future funding on the grounds that it does not have the capacity to utilise funds, placing in doubt a pending application for some Sh10 billion for Round 9.

In a letter seeking Nacc's intervention, the civil groups said: "We are concerned that while the Global Fund has done its part by disbursing $4,735,494 to CARE International Kenya in March this year, the pace of implementation has become an issue of great concern.

"We believe that if this is not addressed quickly, it could negatively impact on future rounds and even our ability to source funding for HIV and Aids elsewhere."

Nacc director Alloys Orago said he was aware of the problem.

Rated poorly

"I have called a meeting for Friday to find out how this issue can be solved," Prof Orago said.

Kenya is rated poorly in utilising and accounting for Global Funds money and is on average 21 months behind.

Last November, Public Health and Sanitation minister Beth Mugo had to plead the country's case at the Global Fund's headquarters in Geneva after the body threatened to suspend finances over allegations of mismanagement of funds.

On her return, she said everything was in order and the threat to withhold funds had been withdrawn.

"The main issue has been low rate of implementation associated with delays in reporting results, which we have undertaken to address," she said then.

To speed up implementation, it was decided that funds destined for the government be separated from those allocated to civil societies, whose share would be given to one of them for distribution and monitoring.

That is how CARE International Kenya came to receive the funds.

An officer at CARE said disbursement of the money was in progress but would give no further details, saying only director Stephen Gwynne-Vaughan could comment.

Snubbed meeting

The director was, however, not available when sought for comment.

But according to a letter by the CARE director, the organisation snubbed a meeting called by the civil groups on Wednesday to discuss the matter.

"CARE is not in a position to discuss the outstanding issues faced by individual sub-recipients in an open forum but remains available to deal directly with partners to address any new concerns," said the letter.

And while the players squabble over funds, Kenya has only about 260,000 HIV positive people on anti-retroviral drugs when it has the potential to supply almost 1.4 million.