AIDS donors call for salary review

Salaries of employees at Kenya's National AIDS Control Council (NACC) could soon be up for review, Health Minister Charity Ngilu said. Ngilu said the current National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) government could no longer sustain huge salaries with donor money when NACC's response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic had been so "dismal". According to Ngilu, NACC had spent over 45 percent of US $52 million worth of World Bank funding on administrative costs, 39 percent on staff salaries and 6 percent on HIV/AIDS programmes in 2001. "We will not honour and respect lopsided arrangements made by the former regime. The salary structures at NACC are to be reviewed very soon," local newspaper The East African Standard quoted Ngilu as saying. She said the 31.9 percent spent on personnel emoluments and other expenses in 2002 had aroused donor concern and resulted in urgent calls for the situation to be rectified.