All the five grants of the Global Fund to Uganda remains suspended, the fund's spokesperson has said.

Jon Liden, the fund's head of communication, said in a statement issued on Sunday that "the Global Fund did not lift the suspension of the grants to Uganda. On the contrary, it reaffirmed that it is solely the responsibility of the Global Fund's secretariat to impose or lift suspensions of grants." On Sunday, local press quoted Ugandan Minister of Health Jim Muhwezi and the Ugandan mission in Geneva as saying that the ban had been removed.

"The east Africa delegation to the Global Fund Board did indeed make a motion for the board to lift the suspension, but this motion was withdrawn after it became clear that there was no support for such a motion among any of the 20 other board members," he said.

"The situation in Uganda is unchanged. With the exception of life-saving expenditures as agreed between the Global Fund and the Ministry of Finance, all five grants to Uganda remain suspended.

The Global Fund is working very closely with the Ministry of Finance and is optimistic that the management concerns raised by the Global Fund will be addressed in a way that will enable a lifting of the suspension by the end of October, or soon thereafter," Liden said.

Geneva-based Global Fund on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria suspended five grants to Uganda in August after learning of "serious mismanagement" of funds by the Program Management Unit in the Ministry of Health that was set up to administer them.

Source: Xinhua