Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy says Guyana is not among the countries that have World Bank money sitting around idly, but admitted that it has not been doing some kinds of research because it lacks the capacity.

This was in response to a report in yesterday's Guyana Chronicle, which quoted Director of the Global AIDS Programme for the World Bank Dr Debrework Zewdie as naming Guyana among the Caribbean countries guilty of the "moral hazard" of having money to fight HIV, but failing to utilise it fully, when some of it could be plugged into research.

Guyana is part of the World Bank's US$155M Caribbean multi-country initiative. Of that amount Dr Ramsammy said, Guyana received a US$10M grant, while some other countries received up to US$25M in loans. According to Chronicle's report, Dr Zewdie said one of the realities of Guyana was that the true extent of the AIDS problem was unknown and worse yet, hardly any research to test effectiveness of the antiretroviral (ARV) therapy given to people with HIV.

The minister admitted that there has been no research done in the area of drugs since the country does not have the capacity for such, but pointed out that research has been done in the form of the Behavioural Surveillance Survey (BSS) and the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) survey.

The minister also acknowledged that there have been instances where donor agencies provide funding for the same area and there may be an excess of cash in that area and need for re-allocation. He said while there were adequate funds for the procurement of drugs the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme did not have enough money. "We have gaps and we seek to fill them... as a matter of fact the World Bank and Global Fund have been extremely flexible with us and we have been able to reallocate some funds," the minister said.

According to the minister, if Guyana was not utilising the money it received from the World Bank adequately then the country's application for money for its HIV and malaria programmes would not have been approved for the second phase. He said because the money was utilised in the first phase the country has now been approved for the second phase of funding, which has already been disbursed.

"You know there may be someone out there living with HIV who needs treatment and is not being treated and that's because that person has not come to the knowledge of our treatment programme as yet but if we get knowledge of that person tomorrow they will be treated. We have been utilising our money," the minister said.