LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The once vibrant civil right group Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) on Friday, April 16, 2021 came out of the cocoon demanding the arrest of people suspected to have abused Covid-19 funds.
The grouping therefore threatened to hold anti-Tonse government demonstrations on April 29 if the suspects are not arrested within seven days.
The organisation has also demanded an action plan from President Lazarus Chakwera’s Tonse administration on how the money will be recovered.
HRDC chairperson Gift Trapence told the news conference in the capital Lilongwe that President Chakwera owes the nation an explanation on the emerging issues surrounding missprocurement in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) and how these will be addressed.
He demanded the interdiction of senior controlling officers in government, including some at the OPC and even those at local district councils to allow the rule of law to take its course.
“We demand that practices that are criminal in nature should be taken over by the law enforcement authorities for prosecution.
“The audit report clears states the names of the people that abused the funds and we will be closely watching this process to ensure that no culprit is spared,” he said.
He also noted that, although the Malawi Police Service and Malawi Defence Force both received substantial amounts from the Covid-19 fund, both institutions are conspicuously missing from the audit report.
He said their absence from the report raises more questions than answers because it is clearly that those institutions used their money.
On prosecution of suspects, Trapence proposed the establishment of a special court to deal with the fraud saying they need quick turnaround on this issue.
“A quick resolution and prosecution of culprits in this case will send a clear and resolute message to the civil servants on how quick the wheels of justice work. Otherwise, we will have a scenario such as the Cashgate cases where, eight years down the line, some cases have yet to be tried. This makes a mockery of the justice system,” he explained.
He added that HRDC and Malawians will not be spectators and watch as public funds are abused but they will make sure that every tambala is accounted and paid back.
Below is HRDC full statement:
STATEMENT FOLLOWING THE RELEASE OF THE COVID-19 AUDIT REPORT
HRDC has read and analysed, with absolute dismay, the Investigative Report on the Usage and Accountability of the MK6.2 billion COVID-19 Disbursement as presented by the National Audit Office.
First and most importantly, HRDC would like to commend the National Audit Office for compiling this thorough and in-depth report. This is a detailed report that leaves no doubt as to who the culprits are and how the public money was looted by some heartless public servants.
OUR OBSERVATIONS
From the general operations, the report shows just how rotten the government system is. What is apparent from the looting is that we are not dealing with bad apples, we are dealing with a rotten tree. What is worrying is that these are the same public officials that are entrusted with public funds, and not only COVID-19 funds. If there were able to loot MK6.2 billion with such reckless abandon, one wonders what they do with the other public funds. The fact that there were audit queries in all the departments that received COVID19 funds is telling in itself. According to the Audit Report, these are some of the ways in which money was stolen:
Diversion of Items for Personal Use There are instances where officers diverted items that had been purchased for use in mitigating the impact of COVID-19. In total, about K6 million worth of items were diverted for personal use.
Unaccounted/Missing Cash, Missing Vouchers According to the Audit Report, a total of MK83 million in cash was unaccounted at the conclusion of the audit exercise. To mean that officers simply pocketed the cash and did not care to provide supporting documentation on how the money was used. This figure includes K12 million of missing cash.
Payments of Undue Allowances, eg Payment of Unnecessary Allowances Within Duty Stations and Payment of Allowances to Non-Existent or Ghost Workers In total, MK77 million was paid out to non-existent or ghost workers that we specifically created for purposes of this pilferage. This figure also includes irregular and unjustifiable allowances paid out to officers, including the payment of allowances to officers without any evidence of att
Missing Fuel: About K40 million of the COVID-19 funds were used on fuel purchases that were not liquidated, missing, not accounted for, diverted or refunds that were not supported by receipts.
Misprocurement and Exorbitant Charges of Goods and Services without Justification: The report states that K488 million was lost through irregular procurement or misprocurement. And this includes the use of Request for Quotation (RFQ) method for procurement which is against public procurement regulations, irregular procurement, use of single-sourcing procurement method, procurement at exorbitant and inflated prices and failure to produce bidding documents. While there are many shocking examples in the audit to highlight these irregularities, allow us to cite the example of Umodzi Park.
• The Department of Disaster Management (DoDMA) paid MK12,374,219 to Umodzi Park as a conference package for meetings of the Presidential Taskforce and allowances of staff amounting to K8,662,019. The conference package charges, according to the payment voucher, should have been K3,712,200. The report observes that the payment of the K8,662,019 is both irregular and dubious as Umodzi Park are not in the business of paying professional allowances, fuel and airtime to the Presidential Taskforce members. After the Cashgate scandal, one would have thought that the systems in the use of public funds would be strengthened, but it seems that the free-for-all looting is going on unabated. Public servants looted funds using ghost activities, ghost companies, disbursement of fuel for activities that were non-existent. We will cite two incidences of
this looting:
• In July 2020, government adopted the fumigation of offices and adopted a company called Pest Chem IB. The audit reveals that Pest Chem IB was handpicked by government to do the job through OPC without following procurement procedures. Pest Chem IB was paid a total of MK97 million for fumigating government buildings.
What is troubling is OPC’s decision to use a private fumigation company when the Lilongwe District Council had the capacity to carry out the work. Further, it is noted that the materials for fumigation were provided for by government, which does not justify the use of a private company. Also, for one job, Pest Chem IB were paid K26 million for a job that normally costs MK1.5 million.
• In March 2021, the Immigration Department gave a contract to supply MK5.7 million PPE materials through an evidently flawed and dubious process. The supplier, a Mrs Memory Mhango was handpicked to supply the PPE materials even though she was not a qualified supplier of goods. The department also flouted government’s
procurement procedures by using the RFQ process instead of the recommended open tendering method.
What is worrying, on our part, is that all this looting was happening as scores of Malawians were gasping for air in the COVID-19 isolation wards in our public hospitals as they struggled to meet the demand for oxygen. Tragically, the country lost a number of frontline workers who put themselves in harm’s way, even though they lacked the vital PPE materials that would have protected them and kept them off harm’s way. as we have
pondered before, how many lives would we have saved had this country used these vital resources for their intended purposes?
The looting, as exposed in the audit report, was systematic and evidently methodical, which supports our premise that the rot in the public service is endemic. Across board in all departments, the nature of the abuse was similar to suggest either collusion or that the system of looting public funds across the civil service is in this manner is normal practice.
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
Following our reading and analysis of the National Audit report, we would like to make these recommendations to government:
• An overhaul of the civil service. Like we alluded to in the introduction, we are not dealing with rotten apples anymore, the tree is rotten to the core and it needs to be cut to allow for a fresh plant to grow in its place. Over the years, these are the same government officers that have been involved in the looting of public funds over the
past decades. This is no secret. We have had so many financial scandals in the public service that have turned this country into a crime scene. So, our position as HRDC is that if the current government does not clear the rubble, as they promised to during the campaign trail, then this rot will continue to go on for generations to come. We need to clear the civil service now!
• We demand that the Malawi Police Service, the Office of the Director of Public Officers Declarations, alongside law enforcement agencies, investigate the companies that benefited from unlawful procurements. Our recommendation is that the guilty companies should be blacklisted and delisted from public procurement. Added to that, we recommend that the Office of the Director of Public Officers Declarations, the Anti-Corruption Bureau and other agencies investigate how some companies that are not registered with the ODPOD were given public
contracts.
In this regard, we cite the example of a company called Kokoliko Dealers that was awarded a K5.8 million contract to supply face masks and hand sanitisers to the Ministry of Labour. A quick check on the list of companies
registered with the ODPOD shows that Kokoliko Dealers in not registered to supply goods to public institutions.
• Government should strengthen its procurement systems to ensure that they put an end to this looting. aMalawi atopa ndikubedwa kwa ndalama za boma.
We cannot continue like this as a country. This level of looting is unacceptable and we have to ensure that people’s taxes are used prudently. Malawians work through their noses to pay for these taxes and it is painful when they see civil servants wantonly share their hard-earned money with little regard or concern.
• Government should put in place a legal response that deters a repetition of such public looting.
OUR DEMANDS
• Pay Back the Money – As per the National Audit Office’s recommendations, we demand that the culprits have to pay back the money. Those who abused the funds should pay back the money. We demand the immediate arrest of those suspected to have abused COVID-19 funds. We are giving the government 7 days to arrest the suspected culprits and to give us an action plan on how the money will be recovered. HRDC will mobilise Malawians to hold mass demonstrations across Malawi on April 29 if our demands are not met.
• The President owes the nation an explanation on the emerging issues surrounding miss-procurement in the Office of the President and Cabinet and how these will be addressed.
• We demand the interdiction of senior controlling officers in government, including some at the OPC and even those at local district councils, to allow the rule of law to take its cause.
• We demand that practices that are criminal in nature should be taken over by the law enforcement authorities for prosecution. The audit report clears states the names of the people that abused the funds and we will be closely watching this process to ensure that no culprit is spared.
• We have noted that, although the Malawi Police Service and Malawi Defence Force /both received substantial amounts from the COVID-19 fund, both institutions are conspicuously missing from the audit report. We demand to know from the National Audit Office why these two institutions were not audited. Their absence from the report raises more questions than answers. We need to know how these two institutions used our money.
• We demand the establishment of a special court to deal with this fraud because we need quick turnaround on this issue. A quick resolution and prosecution of culprits in this case will send a clear and resolute message to the civil servants on how quick the wheels of justice work. Otherwise, we will have a scenario such as the Cashgate cases where, eight years down the line, some cases have yet to be tried. This makes a mockery of the justice system.
• In conclusion, HRDC and Malawians will not be spectators and watch as public funds are abused. We will make sure that every tambala is accounted and that our will be paid back.
Signed by:
Gift Trapence, HRDC Chairperson
Luke Tembo, HRDC National Coordinator
Billy Mayaya, HRDC Coordinator Central
Happy Mhango, HRDC Coordinator North
Masauko Thawe, HRDC Coordinator South
Madalitso Banda, HRDC Coordinator East