Service Provider to conduct Fraud Risk Assessment (FRA)

Before COVID-19 and building on the successes of the Sixth Replenishment and the progress made against TB, HIV and Malaria diseases, the Global Fund set itself challenging objectives for 2020 notably; to maximize the impact delivered through existing grants; to sign high quality grants for the next cycle and to lay the foundations for the next Global Fund strategy.

It was always anticipated that achieving the organization’s objectives would involve managing a more variable risk trajectory. Nonetheless, the COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented level of disruption, overwhelmed health systems and threatened to destroy decades of progress in the fight against HIV, TB and Malaria and required a decisive response to protect Global Fund programs and the mission of the organization.

The Global Fund responded immediately to the COVID-19 pandemic and awarded an initial amount of approximately US$1 billion, followed by an additional award of US$3.3b to help countries fight the pandemic. The funds were destined for the procurement of critical tests, treatments, and medical supplies, protect frontline health workers, adapt lifesaving HIV, TB, and malaria programs, and reinforce fragile systems for health by leveraging existing channels.

The current control environment (of massive unemployment, disrupted supply chain, liquidity concerns, overstretched health systems, shortages, and inflated prices of essential supplies) because of the COVID-19 pandemic has made execution of assurance activities by all the layers of assurance quite challenging. This has created an enhanced environment for both existing and new risks to materialize. Controls have weakened with less segregation of duties, justification and rationalization for fraud has increased and travel restrictions and lockdowns have impacted the delivery of assurance activities and service delivery. The risk landscape has also changed with fast-evolving risks (including cyber security risk) and the volatility of data for decision making.