Africa CDC probes missing millions meant for ebola response

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is demanding accountability for more than $700 million in funding intended to fight Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), after a verification exercise failed to trace the money to the structures carrying out the response on the ground.

Speaking at a press conference in Kinshasa on Wednesday, October 14, Africa CDC Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya denounced what he described as a lack of transparency in tracking funds disbursed by international partners.

According to Kaseya, donors say they disbursed $962 million to implementing partners. But a joint verification exercise with Congolese health authorities could only trace slightly more than $200 million to the structures actually involved in the Ebola response.

That leaves more than $700 million whose exact destination remains difficult to establish.

Kaseya says a joint verification exercise with Congolese health authorities revealed the gap. Fewer than 30 percent of implementing partners showed up to account for the money.

The revelations reignite long-standing concerns about transparency and accountability in the management of international funding for health emergencies in the DRC, a country that has faced several major epidemics over the past decades, including repeated Ebola outbreaks.