Suppliers to Global Fund back in biz
Two suppliers of mosquito nets to Cambodia found to have bribed officials to gain contracts under the Global Fund’s health grant scheme have had their contracts renewed. The two firms, Sumitomo Chemical and Vestergaard Frandsen, were found by the fund’s Office of the Inspector General in a years-long investigation to have paid more than $410,000 in bribes to two officials at the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control. The two companies spent an additional $20,000 on “gifts” to the officials and their family members. Following a meeting of the fund’s sanctions panel in early January, it decided to lift the suspension of their contracts this week, despite recognising that their misconduct was “relatively severe” and “that it resulted in reputation harm to the Global Fund”, according to a statement released by the fund yesterday. …
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/suppliers-global-fund-back-biz
