World Bank graft fight stirs debate on Africa aid

MISUSED AID

Examples of misused foreign aid abound in Africa.

Nigeria, which has the world's third biggest caseload of people living with HIV/AIDS, lost $50 million in aid to fight the disease in April when the Global Fund suspended two grants over a failure to meet targets on transparency and drug access.

In Uganda, the Global Fund temporarily suspended $367 million in aid last year, saying it discovered serious mismanagement in the distribution of the money.

Across the border in Kenya, the biggest scandal over foreign aid in recent years involved the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) whose director was suspended in 2003 accused of fraud by a government anti-graft watchdog.

The case prompted the World Bank to express concerns that the NACC had not accounted for the money over the six months to June 2004.

Despite concerns about graft, donors defended foreign aid.

"I don't think it is realistic for the time being, for a country like Tanzania to be able to survive without that assistance," Swedish ambassador Torvald Akesson told Reuters in Tanzania, where donors finance 39 percent of its budget.

An international development agency official in Kenya said donors often went where private sector players feared to tread.

"The question is do you stop aid and cut off your ability to influence policies or stay and work to improve financial systems, accountability and political dialogue?" he added.