BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-The Association of Malawians in China have asked for clarification on approved Covid 19 funds for the 292 graduating and continuing students who were stranded and affected by Covid-19 lockdown restrictions across China.
This was disclosed in a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued on Thursday, September 17 signed by Tylos Mandiwe, the President of the Association.
In the letter, Mandiwe disclosed that the association is astonished by the number of beneficiaries that government announced, 292, which is contrary to what the Malawian embassy in China said after the embassy revealed that they only have money for 209 students.
Mandiwe added that out of the 118 million approved by government to be allotted to 292 beneficiaries, only less than 20 students have received the money and when questioned about the delay, the embassy responded that it was due to failure of some beneficiaries to provide accurate bank details.
However when asked to provide excel list which was submitted to the banks, the Embassy refused to share the list and the conduct has raised suspicions among all the students.
The group of Malawians have also expressed dismay in how some few students were forced to dump their excess 20kg of valuables due to failure to pay for excess luggage on domestic flights despite the association’s effort to signal the Embassy to consider those as a priority for their pre-departure Covid 19 tests and excess luggage coverage after funds were transferred from Capital Hill to Beijing.
The association has therefore requested government to share the total list of all 292 beneficiaries which the treasury approved the money so they can verify if the money has reached intended beneficiaries or not.
The ministry of foreign affairs is yet to respond on the matter.
Government should stop funding these cadets. We all know that they were chosen on the basis of party affiliation (or relations) and would be a mistake for the Tonse alliance government to continue funding them. Let DPP (party) take over funding these people.