By Conan Businge

UGANDA has received malaria drugs worth $1.2m (about 2.6b) from the Global Fund. The primary health care minister, James Kakooza, said he had received 33 tonnes of anti-malarials (Coartem), which would last three months.

The National Medical Stores (NMS) has solely been depending on Quality Chemicals, for the supply of anti-malarial drugs.
The country is expected to procure 1.5 million doses of anti-malarials on a monthly basis.

The NMS spokesperson, Hamis Kaheru, said they will receive more malaria drugs from Quality Chemicals before the end this month.
The continued disbursement of drugs by the Global Fund comes as a relief.

Last year, the country was hit by a shortage of anti-malarials because the Fund was not satisfied with how the first installment for the purchase of the drugs was used.

Of the $23m which was allocated to Uganda in 2004 for malaria, $2m (about sh3.7b) had not been disbursed by the end of the year.

The country was 34 months behind the time that it was expected to have accounted for the first phase of this round.
According to Aidspan, an independent watchdog that monitors the Global Fund worldwide, some accountabilities were behind schedule.

During the international AIDS conference in Mexico in July last year, the Global Fund announced that 97 countries had asked for a total of $6.4b for round eight. This was the highest ever since the fund was set up.

Uganda received $45m, its first Global Fund grant, in 2005.

The country was later suspended from receiving money from the fund after a whistle-blower pointed out financial irregularities.

A probe team headed by Justice James Ogoola revealed that the funds were mismanaged.

Mid-last year, the Government agreed, after a two-year delay, to prosecute the accused, including former health ministers.

Former director of economic monitoring Teddy Szezi Cheeye and former UTV production manager Fred Kavuma have been jailed for mismanaging the funds.