Senate Passes Foreign Operations Funding for FY2008: Considers Four Coburn Amendments and Accepts Amendments on U.N. and Global Fund

Purpose: to ensure that the U.S. contribution to the United Nations is not being lost to waste, fraud, abuse or corruption by maximizing the public transparency of all UN spending.

 

Summary of Amendment:  This amendment would require the Secretary of State to certify that the United Nations is publicly transparent about all 2007 spending before the U.S. 2008 contribution is released to the U.N.   The amendment requires the U.N. to post on a publicly available web site, copies of all contracts, grants, program reviews, audits, budgets, project progress reports relating to fiscal year 2007.

 

Rationale: The United Nations needs to be held more accountable—especially given its history of financial scandals including the Oil for Food Program (the largest financial scandal in history), rampant procurement fraud and corruption, and the unfolding Cash for Dictators scandal where the UN has been caught passing cash and military technology to state sponsors of terror.  For every U.S. tax dollar that is lost to corruption at the UN, that is one less dollar that can go towards helping the most vulnerable or investing in regional stabilization or promoting human rights and the rule of law. 

 

For more detailed background on Coburn Amendment  2773 to the fiscal year 2008 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, click here.

To learn more about Dr. Coburn's efforts in this area, visit Dr. Coburn's webpage "United Nations Watch."

Purpose: to ensure that the unprecedented increase in the U.S. contribution to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is accompanied by an end to secrecy regarding how that money is spent. 

 

Summary of Amendment:  The amendment would condition 20% of the Global Fund money on a certification by the Secretary of State that the Global Fund has made all financial and programmatic documents available to the public on a web site. 

 

Rationale: The U.S. only has one vote of 20 but contributes about a quarter of the entire budget of the Fund.  This year, the Fund’s Inspector General reported that hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent by the Fund’s executive director on questionable expenses, including a boat cruise, champagne, limousines and tuxedo rentals.  Despite media attention and Congressional demands, the Fund has refused to release the report to the public or to Congress, in violation of the Fund’s own document disclosure policy.  The Inspector General, in the meantime, has resigned, citing “health concerns.”  The American people have generously contributed billions to the Global Fund since its 2001 inception.  They have a right to know that their money is being spent fighting diseases that threatens millions of lives every year in poor countries, rather than wasted in secret by Global Fund executives. 

 

For more detailed background on Coburn Amendment 2706 to the fiscal year 2008 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, click here.

Purpose: to direct funding towards programs in the Child Survival and Health account that we know are saving lives among the most vulnerable populations and away from a lower priority program, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), that produces few results and is managed by the UN Development Program (UNDP), which utilizes corrupt procurement practices, operates contrary to UN rules, and retaliates against whistleblowers.

 

 Summary of Amendment:  This amendment would transfer $106.7 million from the Global Environment Facility and put $30 million into fully funding the President’s Malaria Initiative and the remaining funds into other life-saving programs in the Child Survival and Maternal Health programs.

 

Rationale: The GEF is an account housed at the World Bank, but administered by UNDP.  Earlier this week, a UNDP whistleblower came forward with information and internal documents that UNDP’s management of the Global Environment Facility includes procurement fraud and sole-source contracting with organizations that are not qualified to effectively implement the Facility’s programs. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has assessed the Global Environment Facility and found that the program cannot demonstrate results, has not implemented performance reforms, does not allocate its funding based on performance and environmental benefit, and lacks strong anti-corruption mechanisms.  On the other hand, programs like the President’s Malaria Initiative are fully transparent and successful at achieving measurable goals to reduce malaria deaths in targeted countries. 

 

For more detailed background on Coburn Amendment 2716 to the fiscal year 2008 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, click here. 

Purpose: To prohibit the U.S. contribution to the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) from being used for malaria prevention or control and to ensure that World Bank malaria-related financing is subject to maximum transparency and accountability.

Summary of amendment: The amendment prohibits the U.S. contribution to the World Bank (about $1 billion annually) from being spent on malaria control and prevention.

 

Rationale: In voting to defeat Coburn Amendment 2704 to the fiscal year 2008 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, the Senate threw away the chance to make a difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable women and children in Africa and around the world who sicken and die from the scourge of malaria. The World Bank’s malaria program has been accused of medical malpractice by a team of scientist and public health experts, who published their concerns in 2006 about the Bank’s lack of transparency, support of obsolete drugs, and resistance to proven disease prevention and control methods in the medical journal The Lancet. While refusing to rebut the allegations, the World Bank now holds the dubious distinction of becoming the last multilateral aid organization clinging to the failed policies of the past responsible for soaring malaria (a fully preventable and curable disease) rates today [click here for a list of major changes in the recent past in malaria prevention and control].  What’s more, the Bank’s own auditors reported that the malaria program was at the top of the list of Bank health programs “tainted by, or at risk of, collusion, fraud and corruption.”

 

For more detailed background on Coburn Amendment 2704 to the fiscal year 2008 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, click here.

To learn more about Malaria, and Dr. Coburn's efforts in this area, visit Dr. Coburn's webpage on malaria oversight work in the U.S. Senate.

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