The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has asked the Ugandan government to recover money that may be misappropriated leading to the suspension of all its five grants to the east African country, local press reported on Thursday.

Chief of Operations of the Geneva-based Global Fund Bradford Herbert told local press on Wednesday that "We have asked the Ministry of Finance to recover any funds that cold have been misappropriated and we hope in the investigation they have decided to institute that will be done."

Herbert said the suspension would be lifted in October "if what we have agreed on goes well."

The fund suspended five grants to Uganda last week, saying its auditors had serious concerns about the operations of the now- disbanded Project Management Unit (PMU), an agency set up to handle cash disbursed by the fund.

Uganda has received 45 million US dollars out of 201 million dollars earmarked for it by the Global Fund over two years.

Global Fund officials concluded a two-day visit to Uganda on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Ugandan government has frozen the Global Fund accounts in two local banks until investigations into the suspended AIDS grants are over.

Source: Xinhua