To: Inspection of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Copy:
Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
Ministry of Health of Ukraine
International and Ukrainian partner organisations
Dear Sirs!
We pay our respect to you and write to you in connection with the following.
Today, a number of humanitarian projects are being implemented in Ukraine and considerable donor funds are provided for the implementation of measures in the area of public health, first of all, in the fight with TB and HIV/AIDS.
In particular, this applies to grants by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Starting from 2003, Ukraine has obtained grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria intended for fighting HIV/AIDS, TB and TB/HIV co-infection.
Today, the programme “Gain momentum in reducing the TB/HIV load by introducing universal access to timely and quality TB diagnostics and treatment, enlarging the scale of evidence-based HIV prevention and creating sustainable systems for health” funded by the Global Fund is being implemented in Ukraine, its main recipients being the International Charitable Foundation “Alliance for Public Health”, “The All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS” Charitable Organisation and the State Institution “Centre for Public Health with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine”.
We have informed Ukraine’s government bodies on a number of occasions about facts of use of donated money provided for the state of Ukraine only by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria by private individuals to get profit. These facts regarding actions with signs of corruption by “The All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS” Charitable Organisation were presented in the independent journalist investigation that we published.
Also, the Public Organisation “Expert Community of Ukraine’s Patients” carried out public expert review of the activity by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine regarding implementation of Law of Ukraine No. 4999-VI of 21 June 2012 “On Implementation of Programmes Run by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Ukraine”.
Based on the expert review, it was recommended that the Law be amended to read that grant agreements with the Global Fund must be signed by the state only as the main recipient represented by the National Coordinator (Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine) that’s entitled to provide subgrants, i.e. parts of a grant that are given by a main recipient to a subrecipient on a free-of-charge and gratuitous basis (gratuitous financial assistance) for carrying out special-purpose measures in the area of TB and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.
The need for doing this is supported by the conditions for contest proposals published by “The All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS” Charitable Organisation as part of implementation of a grant by the Global Fund.
In particular, the one defined in stages 2 and 3 of the contest proposal “Requirements for goods, works or services, procurement subject: Studying the TB stigma index in Ukraine based on the assessment tool developed by Stop TB Partnership” that says that people who overcame TB or a pre-determined TB community (TBPeopleUkraine) only should be engaged as interviewers for semi-structured surveys is impermissible for open contests since it bears signs of discrimination and protectionism.
This obligatory condition that only a pre-determined TB community (TBPeopleUkraine) should be engaged as interviewers for semi-structured surveys, that is, in which the specific community is stated, is discriminatory against other existing communities, for example, “Stronger Than TB” All-Ukrainian Association of People Who Recovered from TB and other ones, and protectionist towards the aforesaid community.
This wording of the obligatory condition could bear signs of dishonesty and corruption component and thus gives grounds for declaring the contest void because its conditions must be revised.
Given the aforesaid, we insist that the results of the said contest “Studying the TB stigma index in Ukraine based on the assessment tool developed by Stop TB Partnership” should be declared invalid and that the contest should be held once again, without any potential signs of dishonesty and corruption.
Also, we inform you that our organisations requested the Ministry of Health of Ukraine to thoroughly check all the contests under the grant proposal “Gain momentum in reducing the TB/HIV load by introducing universal access to timely and quality TB diagnostics and treatment, enlarging the scale of evidence-based HIV prevention and creating sustainable systems for health”.
We appreciate your kind response in advance.
Yours sincerely,
Head of the board of the Public Organisation “Expert Community of Ukraine’s Patients”
IGOR GORBASENKO
Head of the board of the Charitable Organisation “The Ukrainians Against TB” Public Movement” Foundation”
VITALII RUDENKO