Withheld funds cripples AIDS planning

Kenya's National AIDS Control Council (NACC) has suffered a major setback in its planned HIV/AIDS programming following the World Bank's decision to withhold crucial funding. The Bank refused to release more than US $21 million until it received an audit report for the past financial year. NACC director Dr Patrick Orege said the delayed auditor-general's report for 2002/03 would be made available to the Bank in six weeks, adding that the Bank's decision to withhold the funding had crippled the NACC's operations. "About 3,000 groups involved in the war against AIDS at the grassroots, whose proposals have been approved for funding, cannot receive any money until the Bank releases the funds," a local newspaper, New Vision, quoted Orege as saying.