We did not cut HIV cash aid

FTM KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry denied that funds for HIV/AIDS-related social work had been cut earlier this year.
Its minister, Liow Tiong Lai, said that these funds – needed by many NGOs to do their work – were merely delayed.
“There is no such decision (to cut the funding)… when I checked…We didn’t cut any funding for any communicable disease,” he told reporters at the Putra World Trade Centre today.
He was responding to claims by several HIV/AIDS-related NGOs which complained that their funds had been cut, forcing many of them to sack their workers and abandon their programmes.
Since 2006, the Health Ministry had been giving a certain sum of money to the Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC) for the purposes of combating the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country.
The MAC would then disburse these funds to the many NGOs under its wing.
The NGOs would then use this money to counsel infected patients, as well as distribute items such as condoms and lubricants to sex workers.
They would also help with transgenders, drug users and children born with the virus.
(It is not clear how much the ministry gives the MAC. However, it is believed that the amount is a substantial figure.)
Earlier this year, the ministry allegedly cut its funding for these NGOs, forcing some to say goodbye to their workers.
This, was apparently done without warning, and has since raised alarm bells for the HIV/AIDS-affected community.
Liow maintained, however, that some of the programmes were merely delayed, and that the amount of funds had not changed.
“Only certain programmes may be delayed, so the funding is not there. It’s not because of funding that the programme has been delayed. Sometimes the programme is delayed, then the funding didn’t come down.”
“Once the programme continues, then the funding (will also) continue. We didn’t cut any funding,” he said.
He added that the government disbursed its funding according to the separate programmes.
“So whatever funding given to the MAC would be the same. Only that numbers may be different for different programmes,” he said.
The MAC is expected to meet with the ministry over the matter in the near future.