In a statement yesterday, USAID reiterated this explanation. "The Children's AIDS Fund's proposal allows the U.S. government to work directly with the first lady of Uganda's organization, the Uganda Youth Forum, a key factor in developing Uganda's highly successful 'ABC' approach to HIV/AIDS prevention," it said.
ABC stands for Abstinence/Be faithful/Condoms.
Tobias approved the award. Two USAID officials said yesterday the scope of work and the amount of money the Children's AIDS Fund will get are still under negotiation.
"The basic core components are so compellingly good that it is worth our efforts to work with them to come up with a proposal that we can all support," said J. Edward Fox, USAID assistant administrator for legislative and public affairs.
Although the October letter said the work would be done in Zambia and South Africa, the USAID officials said that might change.
The amount of money the 11 other groups will get has also not been decided. A USAID official said that averaging the $100 million among the 11 "is not misleading." That would mean each would get about $9 million. The official said the Children's AIDS Fund's award is likely to be comparable to the others'.
Fox would not reveal the membership of the expert panel, saying it was a "procurement matter," making it secret. Many federal agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health turn to committees of outside experts for advice. In most cases, membership is public information.
In an interview, Waxman said he thought it "peculiar to have this kind of situation where so much money is involved and there is so little transparency in how it is being disbursed."
