When USAID announced the Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) program in October 2004, it was slated to be the largest AIDS program ($7 billion) in the world. USAID finally awarded the contract in September 2005 to a consortium headed by JSI and MSH. What information is now available online about this enormous effort?

• A Google search on "SCMS" lists one reference in the top 100 results;
• A search on "SCMS" at USAID returns one document, the September press release;
• There is a program web site that looks to have been last updated five months ago (the award press release);
• No outside web sites link to the program site according to Google.

USAID promised full public transparency for SCMS. How is it possible than a huge, vital effort involving 15 major partners is essentially invisible?

The State Department's Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator issued this week the second annual report to Congress on PEPFAR (download as pdf / 2 meg). Like last year's report, the current publication is quite clear about tactics, and laden with descriptions of accomplishment conveyed both through aggregated data and anecdote. There is useful detail throughout.

The most puzzling exclusion, once again, is the lack of detailed financial information. In 166 pages there are only six tables addressing finance. There still is little breakdown on funding by topic or program type, and almost nothing about the many contractors that carry out the bulk of the work. While the report overall is helpful, better financial information would make it a true "annual report".

President Bush alluded to AIDS six times in Tuesday's State of the Union address. While many commentators were disappointed by his limited discussion of global AIDS, a half dozen uses of the word "AIDS" does mark improvement from recent years:

• 2006: 6
• 2005: 1
• 2004: 0
• 2003: 11
• 2002: 0

This list also suggests that 2003, and the launch of PEPFAR, was unfortunately an anomaly with respect to White House attention and not the start of increased, steady attention as many had hoped.