Design and implementation of mitigation plans (anti-corruption tool and measures)
Researchers at Boston University (BU) helped move forward the agenda for the procurement of antiretroviral drugs (ARV) (Waning/Vian 2008). Building on the work of both WHO and the Global Fund, they aimed to capture all ARV procurement and make it publicly available on the web through a single dataset. The compiled data included 27 variables and provided detailed information on country, region, products, manufacturers, suppliers, modes of delivery, product, quality, price, etc. Based on this information, a price outlier analysis was conducted on each ARV to identify the procurements whose prices significantly exceeded the global distribution of prices paid for the same product.
This allowed BU researchers to identify 80 high price outliers from November 2002 to June 2006 to send a warning signal for potential problem areas. The information has also been used to compare prices paid in-country to global median prices paid for identical products. These examples illustrate how the disclosure of procurement information can be used to facilitate and monitor procurement at the program, country and donor levels.