A Global Fund investigation has exposed fake invoices, forged signatures and weak controls in World Vision Malawi’s malaria program, uncovering about K218 million in noncompliant spending. The findings raise fresh concern over how money meant to fight a deadly disease was allegedly abused.
A motorcycle was allegedly billed as a bus in a Global Fund-financed malaria program — one of the most striking details in an investigation that uncovered fake invoices, forged signatures and weak financial controls at World Vision Malawi.
The case goes far beyond an accounting anomaly. It involves money meant to fight malaria, a disease that remains a major killer in Malawi.
According to the Global Fund’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the irregularities led to about $125,901, or roughly 218 million Malawi kwacha, in noncompliant spending under World Vision Malawi’s malaria grant operations.
The report, dated June 5, 2025, says local vehicle hire companies and World Vision Malawi finance staff compromised procurement processes during indoor residual spraying campaigns between 2020 and 2022.
Since 2003, the Global Fund has invested more than $2.2 billion in Malawi to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.
World Vision Malawi served as principal recipient for the malaria grant from 2016 to 2023, managing $33 million for activities between 2021 and 2023 alone.
Of that budget, travel and vehicle hire accounted for $11.5 million, or 32% of the total grant.
The scandal echoes the 2015 National Aids Commission (NAC) scandal, when the Global Fund stripped the NAC of its principal recipient status after widespread financial mismanagement and the diversion of AIDS funds to nongovernmental organizations and political causes.
The latest findings suggest procurement weaknesses persisted even after the shift from state-run bodies to nonstate implementers.
The OIG launched its independent audit after World Vision International self-reported $55,067 in overpayments in July 2022.
But the internal review only partly addressed the wider allegations. The OIG later examined records for 510 vehicles supplied by nine vendors over three years and sampled 228 vehicle files.
The report found that Planet Car Hire submitted 13 fraudulent invoices for 41 vehicles over two indoor residual spraying campaign years, receiving $46,922, or about 81.4 million kwacha.
Auditors also discovered that four vehicles linked to 10 invoices were falsely described as 13-seater Land Cruisers or 32-seater buses.
Malawi vehicle registration records showed the registration numbers actually belonged to motorcycles and small private sedans.
The report also says World Vision Malawi finance staff created and processed two duplicate payment requests totaling $22,122, or about 38.3 million kwacha.
In one case, a vendor was paid $8,776 in February 2022, then a second payment of $8,757 was processed in April 2022 into an unverified third-party bank account.
In another, staff processed a duplicate payment of $13,365 using a forged signature on a delivery note for goods never received.
World Vision Malawi later recovered those funds after the OIG raised questions.
The OIG also flagged $56,857, about 98.6 million kwacha, as noncompliant because of missing logbooks, inspection reports, fuel receipts and invoices across 15 billing documents.
Of 510 vehicles hired during the period, 165 did not appear in any inspection reports.
“The absence of reliable records similarly prevented the OIG from confirming whether IRS activities actually took place as reported,” the report states.
The findings contrast with earlier successes of the spraying program, which helped reduce malaria cases and hospital admissions by nearly 50% in target districts such as Mangochi, Nkhata Bay and Balaka.
The OIG also found that World Vision Malawi did not consistently communicate the Global Fund code of conduct for suppliers in its 2021 and 2022 framework agreements and local purchase orders.
In response to preliminary findings, World Vision Malawi said some vehicle discrepancies were due to subcontracting by car hire companies and human error in data entry. However, the OIG maintained all unjustified discrepancies in its final report.
World Vision Malawi said it has since terminated contracts for implicated staff, stopped doing business with the vendors involved and restructured its finance, procurement and logistics units to digitize operations and remove manual approvals.
The OIG said its investigation is administrative and does not determine whether any criminal law was broken.
Although IRS funding was discontinued under grant cycle 7 following changes in the National Malaria Strategic Plan, World Vision Malawi remains a principal recipient for the Global Fund’s TB/HIV portfolio under grant cycle 8.
