GENEVA (AP) — A global financier of vaccines for children in poor countries said Thursday it is working with the governments of Cameroon and Niger to recover up to $6.7 million in misused or stolen funds.
The money in question came from cash-based programs that are supported by the $7.2 billion Geneva-based GAVI Alliance, a global vaccines group.
The GAVI alliance includes the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the vaccine industry and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.
A statement from GAVI — the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization — said the health ministries of both countries "have cooperated fully and confirmed their commitment to take all necessary measures, including the reimbursement of misused funds."
The fund spends 85 percent of its donations buying vaccines through UNICEF that are shipped to health ministries in 72 countries with the lowest incomes, spokesman Jeffrey Rowland said, while the other 15 percent goes to cash-based programs in 39 of those countries.
The misused funds turned up through GAVI's regular auditing process, which includes an annual examination of its cash-based programs which are used to pay for trained health workers, syringes, refrigeration and other items need to administer the vaccines, he said.
GAVI said investigators found up to $4.2 million of misused funds in Cameroon, including $1.8 million that is being investigated as theft. Up to $2.5 million in Niger was misused, it said, including $1.5 million that is being investigated as theft.
Between 2007 and 2010, when those funds were dispersed, GAVI gave a total of $29 million in vaccines and cash support to Cameroon and $23 million to Niger, Rowland said.
"Also of concern are the other misused funds which were spent without sufficient documentation or used to pay for activities in the health sector but outside the scope of GAVI's grant agreements," the organization said.
U.N. missions of Cameroon and Niger in Geneva did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Last year, GAVI announced the investigations into the misuse of grant money that was supposed to be spent for "health systems strengthening" in Cameroon and "immunization services support" in Niger and suspended funding for those programs.
But it continued to support other children's immunization programs in those two nations.
GAVI was formally launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2000, two months after the Gates Foundation pledged $750 million over five years to deliver vaccines to millions of the world's poorest children.
Since 2000, GAVI has spent $7.2 billion, Rowland said, and it will probably spend another $7 billion by the end of 2015.
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