Sunday, January 23, 2011

Looking on the Bright Side, It's Good to Know That the UN Isn't the Only Racket Capable of Such Egregious Corruption

I'd hold off sending any donations to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria if I were you. The charity much favoured by Bono and other celebrities is currently experiencing a spot of bother due to missing funds, reports AP:
GENEVA — A $21.7 billion development fund backed by celebrities and hailed as an alternative to the bureaucracy of the United Nations sees as much as two-thirds of some grants eaten up by corruption, The Associated Press has learned.
Much of the money is accounted for with forged documents or improper bookkeeping, indicating it was pocketed, investigators for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria say. Donated prescription drugs wind up being sold on the black market.

The fund's newly reinforced inspector general's office, which uncovered the corruption, can't give an overall accounting because it has examined only a tiny fraction of the $10 billion that the fund has spent since its creation in 2002. But the levels of corruption in the grants they have audited so far are astonishing...
You know what that means, don't you? Time for another all-star concert to shake down rich, guilt-ridden Westerners.

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