The Department of Disaster and Management Affairs (DoDMA) has defended itself for the expenditure of over half of the K6.2 billion on allowances.

DoDMA’s Director of Response and Recovery Moses Chimphepo made the defence today upon meeting the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Lilongwe.

Chimphepo said he is satisfied with how DoDMA has executed its duties in dealing with the pandemic in the country.

“At that particular time when we were responding to Covid-19, not many people knew about Covid-19, not all our health workers were oriented on Covid-19 and we need to undertake several training programmes and activities.

“You cannot undertake certain activities without movement, so at the particular time movement of responsible personnel was inevitable and the training on the health workers on how they can handle Covid-19 and all these activities required resources,” Chimphepo.

But reacting to the sentiments, the Committee’s Chairperson Shadric Namalomba laughed off the response saying it lacks merit.

“That’s a lame excuse, to say that because we have contained the pandemic, that should justify the over expenditure or misuse of public resources, we cannot entertain that as PAC.

“We are looking at efficiency of which public resources are used, we should have contained the disease with reasonable resources not at the level we have used these resources,” Namalomba.

Secretary to the Office of President and Cabinet Zanga-Zanga Chikhosi failed to show up to the Committee on the basis that he is yet to go through the Ombudsman Report on Covid-19 funds mismanagement.