Delays in the importation of AIDS drugs may cause a Harvard AIDS relief program to miss its first-year targets, according to numbers provided by the interim executive director of the program.

The Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), one of four institutions administering the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), won a five-year $107 million grant in February for relief work in Botswana, Nigeria and Tanzania.

But the program has fallen behind schedule because Tanzania has yet to purchase the anti-retroviral drugs needed in the HIV/AIDS clinics that Harvard is assisting.

After six months, the program oversees hundreds of patients, but had hoped to enroll 3,000 before the end of its first year, said Mark Barnes, interim executive director of Harvard PEPFAR.

In Nigeria, the program is funding treatment for approximately 2,000 patients; its one year target was between 7,000 and 9,000 patients.

Barnes, who is currently in Tanzania, explained that the program supervises treatment for more HIV/AIDS patients than any other program in Nigeria, and that Harvard PEPFAR’s figures aren’t lower than any of the other relief programs receiving government funding.

However, a Boston Herald article yesterday cited an anonymous source saying that University President Lawrence H. Summers was “apoplectic” about the progress of the program and its shortfalls.

Lucie McNeil, Summers’ spokeswoman, denied that the president is

upset.

Barnes also disputed the Herald article.

“I think it’s inaccurate in both spirit and letter,” he said.

The Boston Herald reporter who wrote the article, John Strahinich, declined to comment further about the article, saying that his article spoke for itself.

Even though the numbers are not on track to be as high as the program’s first-year goals, the program has not received any criticism from Harvard or the U.S. government, according to Barnes.

Barnes said that Summers had previously expressed personal encouragement to him and dismissed any possibility of a scandal.

“We’ve got nothing to hide and everything to be proud of,” Barnes added.