Ensuring health impact whilst tackling corruption

On 25th March, 15.00 to 16.00 CET, the Coalition for Accountability, Transparency and Anti-corruption in Health (CATCH) convened a session during the 2021 OECD Global Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum: “Ensuring health impact whilst tackling corruption”.

Session summary

When corruption and fraud infiltrate the health sector, this can cost lives. The response to the COVID19 pandemic illustrates this in stark terms. In a health context, and in particular when speed of execution becomes essential, the fraud and corruption prevention approach needs to target those abusive schemes that may lead to the greatest loss of lives, while, at the same time minimally impeding the effective and efficient roll out of the public health response. This session explores the potential pitfalls of commonly used fiduciary controls, and it outlines the benefits of applying a risk-based methodology that helps drive the focus on delivering the public health objective of saving lives. It then explores lessons learned from the international health development community which illustrate how output-based contracting and verification models may serve as a useful tool in efforts to mitigate fraud and corruption risks in health.

About the speakers

William D. Savedoff. Principal Health Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Bill Savedoff has worked for many years on questions related to improving the accessibility and quality of social services in developing countries. This has included research on topics such as health financing, aid effectiveness, corruption, and impact evaluation in prior positions with the Center for Global Development, the World Health Organization and as a consultant for many countries and international agencies. Dr. Savedoff has prepared and advised governments in Latin America, Africa and Asia. His publications include Cash on Delivery Aid, Governing Mandatory Health Insurance and Diagnosis Corruption. He received his PhD in Economics from Boston University. 

Aneta Wierzynska. Senior specialist in anti-corruption and impact at the Global Fund. As the Senior Specialist for Anti-Corruption and Impact at the Global Fund, Aneta oversees the evolution of the Global Fund’s corruption prevention model to ensure it is risk-based and aligned to the Global Fund’s mission.  She is an attorney with over 15 years experience in foreign assistance, performing fraud investigations, developing and rolling out risk management, assurance, and integrity due diligence frameworks, and driving policy reform in the field of anti-corruption.

Fatou Fall. Compliance and risk management coordinator at the World Health Organization. Fatou FALL is a Risk & Assurance Professional, head of WHO’s risk management and compliance unit in the Compliance, Risk Management and Ethics (CRE) department in the World Health Organization. Native from Senegal, she’s combining more than 20 years of experience in the areas of auditing, financial management and project management gained through her experience in “big four” international consultancy firms and UN health agencies. She holds degrees of "Expert comptable" (France), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), CRMA (IIA) and Masters in Finance.

Aurélie Paviza. World Health Organization. Aurélie is a lawyer which specializes in health laws. Aurélie currently works for the Health Governance and Financing Department at WHO, where she focuses on legal issues affecting Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Before joining WHO, Aurélie worked for a French regional health agency and the European Society for Medical Oncology.