Speaker of the National Assembly Catherine Gotani Hara says Parliament will not release a report on the K6.2 billion Covid-19 Funds despite receiving the said report from the Auditor General (AG).

Addressing a news conference at Parliament Building in Lilongwe, Gotani Hara stressed that the House will follow its own procedures before releasing the AG`s Report to the public.

“Indeed this is to confirm that we have received a report from the AG but according to procedure if you our own Constitution Section 184 (2), the Minister of Finance is now the one who officially writes to the Speaker to hand over the report.

“From now onwards, if you check the same section, it says the Minister is supposed to come and lay the documents at our closest sitting of Parliament, and the Minister of Finance is the supposed to present the report in the House,” said Gotani Hara.

The Speaker called upon Malawians to exercise their patience as the lawmakers analyse contents of the report.

On his part, the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee Chairperson Shadric Namalomba said PAC will exercise its mandated duty on the report procedurally.

“We are in the process of investigating, we are summoning people to answer to the allegation of mismanagement of Covid-19 funds, so this report is going to complement that process that is already underway.

“In as far as parliament is concerned, this is a procedure that it has come to PAC, PAC will sit down and analyse it and then will begin to call individuals that have been mentioned I that report,” said Namalomba.

According to the aforementioned section in the constitution, Auditor General shall submit reports at least once a year to the National Assembly, through the Minister responsible for Finance, not later than the first meeting of the National Assembly after the completion of the report.