By Mardiyyah Abubakar
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has threatened to blacklist aid partners who fail to account for funds received to combat disease outbreaks across Africa.
The agency’s Director-General, Dr Jean Kaseya, issued the warning during an interview on a National Television on Thursday, stressing that organisations must operate transparently and account for the funds they receive.
Kaseya said donors had pledged $3 billion to support outbreak responses at a meeting held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September, with $962 million already disbursed.
However, he said that during a meeting with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government and its partners, only 19 of the 92 partners attended, disclosing that they had received about $220 million.
He questioned the whereabouts of the remaining funds, saying governments must know how much partners receive, the activities they carry out and the locations where they operate.
Kaseya clarified that the agency was not accusing anyone of fraud or financial mismanagement but was seeking to establish the whereabouts of the money and ensure proper accountability.
He said the Africa CDC was working with donors, including the United States and the European Union, to obtain details of the organisations that received funding and the amounts disbursed.
The director-general warned that partners who failed to account for the funds would face consequences, including possible blacklisting across African countries.
He said he would write to African governments and take the matter to the African Union Assembly to ensure that organisations that refused to comply with transparency requirements were blacklisted.
Kaseya also disclosed that he had instructed Professor Aliko Ahmed to coordinate partners working on Nigeria’s outbreak response in collaboration with the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Pate, and provide daily updates to the minister.
