By Wezzie Gausi:
The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (Pac) has faulted Local Government Finance Committee (LGFC) over its failure to provide documents showing how K10.8 billion was spent on the purchase of drugs for local councils in the country.
Pac has been meeting officials from government ministries, departments and agencies to answer queries emanating from the Auditor General’s Report for 2012-22.
Speaking after meeting officials from the LGFC at Parliament Building in Lilongwe Tuesday, committee vice chairperson Ned Poya said they were interested in finding out how the institution would account for the money.
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He, however, said LGFC failed to supply committee members with requisite documents.
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“It is sad to note that the finance committee [officials] do not handle the cash themselves, as the Treasury gives this money directly to the Central Medical Stores Trust. What is happening is something that the Treasury needs to shed light on. We are told that all public hospitals are told just to go and draw medicines from the Central Medical Stores Trust as the money is paid directly to them.
“This means there is more paperwork that needs to be done for all the districts in the country, which makes it difficult to trace how much of the drugs are being taken out of the stores,” Poya said.
LGFC Executive Director Kondwani Santhe said they had taken note of lawmakers’ concerns.
He said it is, indeed, difficult to trace transactions pertaining to drugs.
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“As suggested by the committee, we will be working on having an automated system so that we can be able to track down how the money that is given to the Central Medical Stores Trust is being spent,” Santhe said.
The committee had about five audit queries emanating from the report that required LGFC to clarify.
