* The Councils and clusters must urgently submit their proposed itemized activity plans on how they intend to spend their allocations
* The Councils have also been ordered to submit monthly expenditure reports for for February 2021 by March 5
By Duncan Mlanjira
Except for Ministries of Health and Education, all clusters and Councils have been ordered to stop spending the remaining K17.270 billion COVID-19 funds which government allocated to them to combat the second wave of the pandemic.
This follows the massive plunder of the K6.2 billion that the government disbursed last year and on February 23, the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 met at Bingu International Convention Centre to provide guidance on the utilisation of the K17.270 billion funding that was already released to clusters.
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Thus Department of Disaster Management (DoDMA) is ordering all Councils to transfer their respective funds into its account and that they must urgently submit their proposed itemized activity plans on how they intend to spend their allocations.
They are being requested to outlay the activity plans in time for DoDMA to circulate to members of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 the consolidated Council plans by Friday, February 26.
The consolidated Council plans will be reviewed by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on March 2, 2021.
The Councils have also been ordered to submit monthly expenditure reports for for February 2021 by March 5,” says a statement released by DoDMA’s Commissioner, Rev. Moses Chimphepo.
Leader of Opposition Nankhumwa
Last week, after revelations that Leader of Opposition, Kondwani Nankhumwa and others had been receiving “questionable” allowances upon every seating of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 as well as other clusters, Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) issued a statement demanding that they should pay back the funds.
HRDC said in a statement on February 19 that they were “enraged by the recklessness exhibited by the leaders, especially at this time when it is important that the country uses every available resources to fight the pandemic”.
“We are in the fight of our lives. The K3.6 million that Honourable Nankhumwa pocketed could have gone a long way in saving lives of several patients.
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“In fact, if the K3.6 million was channeled directly towards the COVID-19 fight, it could have filled 36 oxygen cylinders or bought about 16 flowmeters, both of which are critical for the survival of COVID-19 patients.
“While our focus is on Honourable Nankhumwa due to the fact that he is the only one whose allowances have been ‘leaked’, we are aware that there are several more culprits in the COVID-19 allowance scam.”
HRDC thus asked the government to release all the COVID-19 expenditure reports in the “spirit of accountability and transparency on which our democracy is founded”.
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Revelation that Nankhumwa pocketed the K3.6 million came about after the Leader of Opposition told a press conference of how the Money was being plundered in Councils and government clusters.
Nankhumwa had threatened to resign as member of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 if President Lazarus Chakwera does not order a forensic audit to establish whether or not DoDMA and some government clusters abused K6.2 billion.
He has said: “This scandal is an unfortunate episode in the nation’s fight against COVID-19 because so much time is now being spent on trying to figure out what happened or who did what.”
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He also demanded that the report of the findings should be submitted to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament as he believed that this “would be the only and best path that the government can take to establish whether or not these public funds are being used for their intended purpose and deter future abuse of COVID-19 and other public funds.”
He said culprits must be arrested and prosecuted and that there should be no sacred cows in arresting culprits and that no politics should be involved.
“If President Chakwera does not take heed of my proposition, it will be extremely difficult for me, personally, to continue serving in my current role as member of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19.
“If what I have suggested does not happen, I will have no choice but to resign as a member of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 in order to save my integrity as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament,” he said.
