DR Congo: $700m in Ebola aid unaccounted for as outbreak spreads

Africa's top public health agency and Congolese officials have raised concerns over $700 million in Ebola aid that is unaccounted for and called on aid groups to provide more information about their finances.

This comes as the world's fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record continues to outpace efforts, and the virus has spread into eight provinces in Congo and into neighbouring countries, Kenya and Uganda.

The revelations renew long-standing questions about transparency and accountability in Congo, a country battered by decades of major epidemics, including repeated Ebola outbreaks. In recent months, The Associated Press reported extensively on strikes of front-line healthcare and support workers over unpaid salaries, bonuses and dangerous conditions in eastern Congo.

Previous Ebola outbreaks were marked by allegations of corruption and mismanagement of funds, which experts said have contributed to the mistrust of local communities, complicating the efforts to halt the spread.

“Many of those involved in the response, who sometimes risk their own lives to save others, say that they have not been paid,” Prince Bahati, a nurse from Bunia, a town in eastern Congo which is at the centre of the outbreak, told the AP. “Such a situation is unacceptable and demands clarification, as well as rigorous oversight of how the mobilised resources are managed.”

Anicet Kakule, a Bunia resident, said his friend died in an Ebola treatment centre because of a lack of adequate care.

“When you hear about sums like these, frankly, I can understand why some people believe that Ebola has become a business for many NGOs,” he said. “I would like to see the management of funds allocated to the response handled jointly by our country’s government and humanitarian partners, the WHO, for instance — to ensure greater transparency and accountability,” he said.

Here's what we know about the Ebola funding.

Not all funds are accounted for

Dr. Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the continent's top public health agency, told reporters last week that since the beginning of the epidemic, $962 million from international donors has been disbursed to organisations working on Ebola response in eastern Congo.

But only $200 million has been accounted for by organisations working on the ground, which include U.N. agencies such as the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the World Food Programme, and international charities like Save The Children and Médecins du Monde, as well as local aid groups.

Only one-third of the organisations attended a recent meeting organised by Congo's health ministry and provided their financial records, Kaseya said. Those attending organisations said they received $228 million, of which $127 million had been spent and around $100 million remained available.

Kaseya did not specify which organisations lagged.

“This represents a significant lack of transparency and financial reporting on the part of these organisations, preventing the Government from having a comprehensive overview of the resources mobilised, how they were utilised and the results achieved,” the Africa CDC said in a statement.

“It is unacceptable for organisations to receive hundreds of millions of dollars to intervene in a country facing a major health emergency without providing a transparent account to the national authorities responsible for coordinating the response.”

Kaseya said the agency would work closely with the Congolese authorities to investigate what has happened with the remaining money.

Congolese authorities restrict how many organisations work on the ground

Following the statement from the Africa CDC, Congolese authorities, which are in charge of coordinating the response, highlighted that they have not received any money directly from international donors.

The country's health minister, Samuel Roger Kamba, told the Congolese Press Agency on Sunday that the authorities have restricted operations of organisations on the ground, and granted accreditations to only 25 out of almost 100 organisations that had been previously authorised to operate.

The authorities are investigating what happened to the money, he said, and implementing organisations are required to report how much money they received, from whom and detailed plans for how they are spending it.

“The funds granted were not paid into the general treasury; we must know who received what and who is doing what on the ground. All partners must be able to provide us with this information,” Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya told the AP.

Ebola's biggest outbreak on record continues spreading

The Ebola outbreak in Congo has reached an eighth province in the country’s north, authorities said on Sunday as the spread of the world’s fastest-growing outbreak of the disease on record continues to outpace response efforts.

Authorities have recorded at least 9,400 cases, including over 4,500 deaths, in the outbreak declared in mid-May, making it the deadliest in Congo’s history.

The virus has spilt over into other countries, including neighbouring Uganda, which has since declared itself free of the disease, and Kenya, which has recorded eight cases as of Sunday.

The spread of the outbreak, caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment, is fueled by mass population movements, rebel violence, mistrust and poor working conditions of frontline workers.