AMAs

ABSTRACT When the Office of the Inspector General published a report on its audit of grant management in high-risk environments in January of this year, we reported on the audit findings and we undertook to provide information in a separate article on five agreed management actions that the Secretariat committed to implement to address the findings. This article contains details on the AMAs.

ABSTRACT The Office of the Inspector General provided the Global Fund Board with a summary of its progress to date in dealing with outstanding Agreed Management Actions which are recommendations based on its audit reports. COVID-19 disruptions, competing priorities in signing new grants, and challenges in selecting implementers continue to hinder the Secretariat’s ability to implement AMAs that require extensive engagement with in-country implementers. As such, long-overdue AMAs increased from 14 (May 2021) to 23 (September 2021). Four of the 23 long-overdue AMAs pose high risk.

ABSTRACT According to a joint progress report by the Secretariat and the OIG, the number of open and overdue Agreed Management Actions (AMAs) was at an all-time low since 2014 when the OIG started tracking closed AMAs systematically. However, some AMAs have remained overdue for years because of changing political environment in the affected countries, developments at the Global Fund, and unforeseen complexities in the implementation of the AMAs.

ABSTRACT Following an audit of Global Fund grants in the Chad, the Office of the Inspector General has determined that measures put in place under the Fund’s Additional Safeguard Policy have helped “to reduce, but not sufficiently mitigate, significant financial and programmatic risks.” Although Chad has received extra flexibility and capacity building in light of its classification as a challenging operating environment, significant weaknesses remain, the OIG said. The OIG and the Secretariat have agreed on four management actions to be implemented by the end of this year.

ABSTRACT As of 31 August 2018, overdue agreed management actions were at their lowest level since the Office of the Inspector General started systematically tracking and reporting on the implementation of AMAs in 2014. This information is contained in a progress report prepared for the Board by the OIG and the Secretariat. All AMAs related to three areas – CCM processes, grant closure and risk management – have been closed.

ABSTRACT The Global Fund has made considerable progress in many areas, the Office of the Inspector General says in its 2017 annual report, and has reached a point where many of the remaining challenges are beyond the ability of the Fund, acting alone, to resolve. Supply chain issues and quality of services top the list of challenges.

ABSTRACT We need to work with the OIG more on agreed management actions to try to make the timelines and deliverables more realistic, Marijke Wijnroks says in the Annual Report of the Interim Executive Director 2017, prepared for the Board meeting just concluded in Geneva, Switzerland. This article summarizes what Wijnroks said about AMAs and about supply chain transformation; grant-making; “Fit for the Future”; Gavi and the Global Health Campus; and the transition to the new E.D., Peter Sands.

ABSTRACT Striking the right balance between fiduciary and program risk is a major challenge for the Global Fund, the Office of the Inspector General says in its semi-annual progress report. Nevertheless, the OIG noted significant progress at both Secretariat and country levels. The OIG also provided information on its 2018 work plan and on the status of agreed management actions.

ABSTRACT Clients using the wambo.org platform are generally quite satisfied, but the project has experienced delays, according to an audit conducted by the Office of the Inspector General. In addition, the OIG said, wambo.org has not achieved projected savings, and has not improved lead times for orders, compared to the Pooled Procurement Mechanism.

ABSTRACT Although in the past several years, the Global Fund has made significant improvements in how it manages its portfolio of grants, further controls are required to ensure that grant monitoring is effective and sustainable. This is the conclusion of an audit conducted by the Office of the Inspector General. The audit coincided with the introduction by the Secretariat of a new grant operating system.