Positive negotiations on AIDS money

The financial management systems of Namibia's Ministry of Health will have to undergo an audit before a Global AIDS Fund grant can be released. The local Fund agent, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) has been appointed to undertake the assessment, which is expected to be completed in two to three months. However, ministry under-secretary, Dr Norbert Forster, told local newspaper The Namibian that negotiations with the Fund to release the US $133 million grant were progressing well. "We have just received official communication that all three of our components have now been finally approved. This is after the Fund had various queries to which we had to come up with satisfactory answers," Forster said. Once the money becomes available, some 13,000 HIV-positive Namibians will be able to access HIV/AIDS drugs through the country's 35 state hospitals, by the end of 2006.