Lusaka, Zambia - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Wednesday announced that former President of Botswana Festus Mogae and former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt will lead a high-level panel of experts to conduct an independent and thorough review of the Global Fund’s financial safeguards. “The appointment of this panel is part of the Global Fund's commitment to ensuring our financial controls are the most robust possible, and that donor investments go directly to fighting AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis,” Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund, said in a statement Wednesday.

“Sound financial controls and anti-corruption protections are essential elements in our continued ability to save millions of lives, and to facilitating social and economic development in the more than 140 countries we support,” he said.

The two co-chairs will select a small group of eminent persons and experts to join the panel.

Over the next several months, the panel will assess the Global Fund’s current practices in financial oversight and implementation.

The panel will also make recommendations where necessary to help strengthen the Global Fund’s fiscal controls and anti-corruption protections. This review is part of a broader set of measures that continue to be implemented to strengthen the Global Fund’s financial safeguards.

'The Global Fund is the world's most powerful tool in the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria and the American people are rightly proud of its success,' Leavitt stated. 'It will be my job as co-chair of this independent review to make certain that the Global Fund's financial controls meet high standards of professionalism and that, if necessary, improvements are made to increase the funds ability to improve lives.'

Mogae, President of Botswana from 1998 to 2008, won the 2008 Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African leadership, in recognition of his record of good governance as President.

Earlier in his career, he occupied posts at the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of Botswana, the Fund said.

Pana 17/03/2011