One of the pioneers of condom production and education, and still one of its biggest proponents and providers in the third world, Phil Harvey, says that he charges a few pennies for his c's - through his charities in places like India, Haiti, etc., - is because people appreciate and are more likely to use with care that which they have paid for. Though not directly related to the story out of New Guinea last week, that philosophy did come to mind.More than two million condoms paid for with Australian aid money were left to expire in Papua by the government’s National AIDS Council Secretariat; they were worth $123, 000 (US) dollars. The condoms are now past their sell-by date and cannot be given away or sold in this country that has the highest HIV rates in the whole Pacific rim. The loss has led to some research which has found that this office has a sad history of mismanagement, to include 100s of thousands of dollars spend on junkets and other goodies for the administrative staffs who were supposed to be managing the country's safe sex programs.board, which aims to reform its activities and look into serious allegations of mismanagement. Documents obtained by the news agency, AAP, show the secretariat has overspent its budget, with hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted - most notably on unnecessary travel. The documents also outline alleged abuses by staff. The secretariat’s new chairman Peter Barter, a former PNG health minister, says the stockpile was discovered during a recent audit. Let's hoep that the 45 million male and female condoms which should now be arriving there - all free! - will fill the bill, but what a horrible (another!) blot on the condom landscape. (It’s estimated two per cent of PNG’s population is infected with HIV/AIDS, affecting between 40,000 to 60,000 people.)
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