The former governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has demanded an immediate audit into the K6.2 billion which was allocated to the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) for Covid-19 response.
In a statement, DPP spokesperson Brown Mpinganjira said the opposition party wants the National Audit Office to conduct the audit and submit a report on the same to Parliament through the Public Accounts Committee within seven days.
DPP’s reaction follows speculations that funds, which Treasury released in August last year for the Covid-19 fight, have been plundered by some public officers.
The former governing party claims that Dodma only accounted for K595 million when the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 demanded expenditure report on the K6.2 billion.
The party alleges that out of the K595 million, K15 million could not be accounted for and Dodma was sent back to return on February 9 with the full expenditure report.
The statement has thus called for an immediate audit and if it establishes that the funds have been stolen or misappropriated, the responsible officers must immediately be arrested and prosecuted in line with the laws of the country.
It further stated that Parliament should also explore other ways of channeling Covid-19 funds towards the fight against the pandemic other than through the presidential decrees.
In his fifth National Address on the War on Covid-19 on Sunday night, President Lazarus Chakwera warned that he will fire any controlling officer or cluster heads who fail to account for the K6.2 billion. He gave the respective ministries and clusters 48 hours to account for the funds to the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19.
The speculation comes after the President had initially presented an expenditure breakdown that, among other things, indicated allocations for meetings and other items which have come under critic as they are not a priority.
Various organizations including the Human Rights Defenders Coalition also demanded that government should take immediate action on the matter.
