Covid funds management worries Kondwani Nankhumwa
Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Kondwani Nankhumwa Thursday said revelations that Covid funds have been poorly used are worrying, and threatened to pull out of the Presidential Taskforce on Covid if the situation were not rectified.
He added that local councils, who received such funds, were as culpable as other institutions that have been faulted for failing to account for the K6.2 billion that the Central Government gave to stakeholders through the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma).
Briefing reporters at the Parliament Building in Lilongwe, Nankhumwa demanded that President Lazarus Chakwera order the National Audit Office to conduct a comprehensive forensic audit of Dodma and all clusters of government.
“The K6.2 billion scandal is an unfortunate episode in our fight against Covid because so much of our time is now being spent on trying to figure out what happened or who did what,” Nankhumwa said.
But Minister of Information Gospel Kazako, in his response, said the process of accountability and transparency did not share the same platform with partisan politics.
Otherwise, he said, “commenting on what the Hon LoP [Leader of Opposition] has said will amount to politicising this very important exercise”.
