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Transparency and Accountability

GAVI supports countries largely through funding for vaccines and other related supplies, which are centrally procured and delivered to Ministries of Health in eligible countries. Approximately 85% of GAVI support is provided in this way. Vaccines represent a low risk of misuse compared to cash payments or other medicines because there is no secondary market for these vaccines.

GAVI’s cash support is used to help eligible countries strengthen their health systems, which are essential to introducing and sustaining new vaccine programmes. This support allows countries to address their specific priorities and system bottlenecks. GAVI’s cash-based support represents approximately 15% of its annual disbursements.

The GAVI Alliance takes very seriously its responsibility as a steward of donor funding and it holds all recipient governments accountable for the support it provides and expects that proper financial management and accountability systems are in place. At the same time, GAVI maintains a transparency and accountability process, managed by a team at the Secretariat and the office of the internal auditor which oversees processes and uncovers apparent serious anomalies in the financial management of any of these cash-based programmes.

When oversight processes uncover apparent serious anomalies in the financial management of these cash-based programmes, GAVI halts cash disbursements and freezes any unspent funds in-country of the programme in question. If, following a full investigation, misuse is confirmed, GAVI requires the government to repay any missing funds.

GAVI actively communicates cases where grants have been suspended to the GAVI Board and to our donors and publicly provides information on its website.

GAVI works in the poorest and most fragile countries in the world.

If GAVI is to deliver on its mission, risk cannot be totally eliminated. However, GAVI does everything possible to mitigate that risk. Donors realise that it is a potentially risky environment, but also rightly expect that this risk be mitigated and prompt action be taken when misuse or fraud is uncovered.

GAVI’s transparency and accountability policy

On January 1, 2009, GAVI enacted a new Transparency & Accountability Policy (TAP) (PDF - 100K) that governs the management of all cash-based support to GAVI eligible countries.

Principles

The policy is founded upon a core set of principles:

  1. Rely and build on existing country capacity to the greatest extent possible, ensuring alignment with country systems;
  2. Be consistent with the commitments of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness;
  3. Promote mutual accountability by encouraging assessments of progress in implementing GAVI support;
  4. Apply a country-by-country approach to reduce fiduciary risks in a manner which is equitable and transparent;
  5. Adopt a set of minimum standards for the management of GAVI cash funding:

    • funding should be used for agreed programme objectives;
    • funds must be managed in a transparent manner, and provide accurate and verifiable financial reports on a regular basis, as specified by individual funding arrangements;
    • funds must be managed within accounts that meet national legal requirements for auditing, accounting and procurement.

Safeguards

As standard practice, GAVI employs the following safeguards on all its cash-based programmes:

Initial assessment: Prior to providing a grant, GAVI’s Transparency and Accountability Unit undertakes a Financial Management Assessment on a programme's financial controls and ensures that any weaknesses are addressed. Then, as programmes are carried out, these assessments are repeated periodically to verify whether financial management systems continue to operate effectively.

Early warning system: GAVI’s Transparency and Accountability Unit oversees an “early warning system” that makes use of external sources of information, including using the experience of GAVI partners and other organisations such as UN agencies, bi-lateral donors and other aid agencies with presence in GAVI-funded countries.

Independent audit annually: Additionally, to manage the risk of misuse, all cash-based programmes undergo independent external audits on an annual basis. GAVI's internal auditor independently performs verifications of the robustness of the entire system of controls.