05-10293. Increasing Access to HIV Counseling and Testing (VCT) and Enhancing HIV/AIDS Communications, Prevention, and Care in Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, and Cote d'Ivoire-Amendment

A notice announcing the availability of fiscal year (FY) 2005 funds for Increasing Access to HIV Counseling and Testing (VCT) and Enhancing HIV/AIDS Communications, Prevention, and Care in Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, and Cote d'Ivoire was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, May 3, 2005, Volume 70, Number 84, pages 22870-22875. The notice is amended as follows:

Replace the current language on page 22873, columns two and three, regarding Prostitution and Related Activities with the following:

• Prostitution and Related Activities.

The U.S. Government is opposed to prostitution and related activities, which are inherently harmful and dehumanizing, and contribute to the phenomenon of trafficking in persons.

Any entity that receives, directly or indirectly, U.S. Government funds in connection with this document (“recipient”) cannot use such U.S. Government funds to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking. Nothing in the preceding sentence shall be construed to preclude the provision to individuals of palliative care, treatment, or post-exposure pharmaceutical prophylaxis, and necessary pharmaceuticals and commodities, including test kits, condoms, and, when proven effective, microbicides. A recipient that is otherwise eligible to receive funds in connection with this document to prevent, treat, or monitor HIV/AIDS shall not be required to endorse or utilize a multisectoral approach to combating HIV/AIDS, or to endorse, utilize, or participate in a prevention method or treatment program to which the recipient has a religious or moral objection. Any information provided by recipients about the use of condoms as part of projects or activities that are funded in connection with this document shall be medically accurate and shall include the public health benefits and failure rates of such use.

In addition, any recipient must have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking. The preceding sentence shall not apply to any “exempt organizations” (defined as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Health Organization, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative or to any United Nations agency).

The following definition applies for purposes of this clause:

• Sex trafficking means the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act. 22 U.S.C. 7102(9).

All recipients must insert provisions implementing the applicable parts of this section, “Prostitution and Related Activities,” in all sub-agreements under this award. These provisions must be express terms and conditions of the sub-agreement, must acknowledge that compliance with this section, “Prostitution and Related Activities,” is a prerequisite to receipt and expenditure of U.S. government funds in connection with this document, and must acknowledge that any violation of the provisions shall be grounds for unilateral termination of the agreement prior to the end of its term. Recipients must agree that HHS may, at any reasonable time, inspect the documents and materials maintained or prepared by the recipient in the usual course of its operations that relate to the organization's compliance with this section, “Prostitution and Related Activities.”

All prime recipients receiving U.S. Government funds (“prime recipients”) in connection with this document must certify compliance prior to actual receipt of such funds in a written statement referencing this document (e.g., “[Prime recipient's name] certifies compliance with the section, “Prostitution and Related Activities.’”) addressed to the agency's grants officer. Such certifications by prime recipients are prerequisites to the payment of any U.S. Government funds in connection with this document.

Recipients' compliance with this section, “Prostitution and Related Activities,” is an express term and condition of receiving U.S. Government funds in connection with this document, and any violation of it shall be grounds for unilateral termination by HHS of the agreement with HHS in connection with this document prior to the end of its term. The recipient shall refund to HHS the entire amount furnished in connection with this document in the event it is determined by HHS that the recipient has not complied with this section, “Prostitution and Related Activities.”

Dated: May 18, 2005.

William P. Nichols,

Director, Procurement and Grants Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.