LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Country Representative, Hyoung-Joon Lim, has urged government and stakeholders to embrace a mindset shift in developing strategies that serve as practical guides rather than remaining on the shelf, if Malawi is to make meaningful progress.
Lim made the remarks in Lilongwe on thursday during the cluster validation of the National Prepositioning Strategy, organized by the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport and Public Works and the WFP.
He explained that the strategy, which is still under review, should guide efforts to strengthen partnerships with the private sector and across government, focusing on staff training and building systems that are ready before shocks occur in disaster-prone areas.
“The real success of this strategy will be measured not by what is written here today, but by how effectively we use it to prepare for future emergencies,” Lim said.
He emphasized that prepositioning and preparedness efforts are critical in increasing the speed and efficiency of emergency response, noting that when disasters strike—whether floods, cyclones, or drought—time becomes the most precious resource.
Director of Preparedness and Response at DoDMA, Charles Matabwa, hailed WFP as a reliable partner that has consistently supported government with technical and financial assistance during times of crisis.
Matabwa further underscored that the validation stage should be regarded as a critical step in institutional harmonization and resilience building across Malawi.
Once validated and adopted, the National Prepositioning Strategy is expected to help strategically position supplies closer to vulnerable communities, strengthen logistics hubs and coordination, and shift the country’s disaster management approach from reaction to anticipation.
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost )-The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) estimates that the country requires approximately K2.451 trillion (USD 1.4 billion) to recover from natural disasters that have affected the country over the past four years.
Director of Preparedness and Response, Moses Chimphepo, disclosed this during the opening of a two-day media training on Disaster Risk Management in Mponela on Tuesday.
Chimphepo noted that property worth K1.6 trillion (USD 921 million) has been damaged due to disasters like Cyclone Freddy and Gombe.
He attributed the increasing frequency of climate-related hazards to factors such as population growth, urbanization, and environmental degradation.
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The Department of Disaster management affairs(DODMA) announced that 11,370 people have been affected by Cyclone Jude with 15 injuries in 6 district of the southern region.
The district are namely Nsanje, Neno, Blantyre, Mwanza, Phalombe and Zomba.
In an interview with Maravi Post on Thursday March 13, DODMA Public Relations Officer,Chipiliro Khamulo said reports from councils indicate that 11,370 approximately 2,527 house holds in Phalombe has been recorded and imaged the highest.
He said the highest recording is from Nsanje with 5,634 and out of Mangochi,Thyolo and Mulanje number of affected people are 3,029 have displaced.
He said meanwhile six camps have been established by DODMA and other various humanitarian partners that are providing relief assistance to the affected families.
Tonse Alliance’s bumper yields exaggeration exposed as Malawi needs K27 bn for relief operation
Despite Malawi producing abundant maize in the past years, food insecurity continues to linger.
The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DODMA) has said it needs K27 billion to mount a humanitarian operation to provide relief items to about 1.5 million people that will be in dire need of food in the lean period of December to February.
This is contrary to what Tonse Alliance, under the leadership of President Lazarus Chakwera, has been preaching on the amount of maize available in reserves.
Commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs, Charles Kalemba, said in an interview in Mponela that currently, they are in discussions with stakeholders and development partners to secure funding for the relief operation.
Although Malawi had a bumper harvest last farming season, the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) has revealed that some people will need food assistance due to climatic shocks, including Cyclone Idai, that resulted in flooding in districts bordering Mozambique in the southern parts of the country, and dry spells in the central and northern regions.
Ironically, in March this year the Ministry of Trade announced a temporary lifting of the maize export ban, which had been in place since February 2018 (FPMA Food Policies) to help stabilize national grain supplies amid concerns over the weather-reduced harvest in 2018.
The Government decided to issue export licences following the update of the national food balance sheet by the Ministry of Agriculture in January 2021 that indicated the country would have a sizeable maize surplus built up from the bumper maize outputs in 2019 and 2020.
But upon receiving MVAC report, the parliamentary Committee on Agriculture reiterated its calls for the government to consider banning maize exports, saying the country may experience shortage of the commodity in the coming season due to rising fertiliser prices.
Statistics contained in the recent MVAC report show that the number of people requiring relief food in the country stands at 1.5 million, about 43 percent lower than 2.6 million projected last year.
President Chakwera and Vice President Chilima promised to end corruption and the culture of impunity
The full expenditure report of the virtually windfall K6.2 billion funds which the treasury released in May last year to be used by the Covid-19 management clusters has been released this week. The snippets in the report have laid bare what went wrong and whose hands made it go amiss! Whilst the nation awaits top government officials, including parliamentarians to bang heads on the report, the fact of matter remains that some kingpins have been named by it. But will they be shamed? Let’s wait and see!
In February this year, President Lazarus Chakwera spat fire on the rumours which went rife that some clusters did not submit their expenditure reports to the Department of Disaster Management (Dodma); perhaps due to the fact that they knew they had not put the funds to the rightful use. Chakwera roared to any abuser of the funds to make no mistake, else heads would roll.
One of the President’s weekly address last February shook walls and weeks later, the nation witnessed restlessness among those concerned with the abuse of the funds when they were given just one month to account for the money through submission of their reports.
On noticing that the reports were taking ages to be submitted, an investigation into how the funds were distributed and used was launched and partial findings of the same, sent some district commissioners packing on interdiction when fingers pointed at them as some big names who allowed their subordinates to throw parties over the funds in form of inexplicable allowances.
Later on, various versions of how the funds were abused came out in different forms and shapes. However, what came out clearly about this windfall money was that a bigger chunk of it was squandered through training allowances of officers on how to manage Covid-19 pandemic, when at that very time innocent lives were being lost in the hospitals because the health facilities lacked funds to purchase such critical equipment as oxygen cylinders and flowmeter to help the Covid-19 patients get better.
Part of the report even reveals that at the Ministry of Labour, officials had the guts to borrow the Covid-19 funds to pay for the minister’s and other officials’ trip to South Africa and documented that they would refund the money when they received their monthly subvention as a ministry. Just hear that! Whatever they were doing in SA, only God knows, but was this the only money they could borrow? Your guess is as good as mine! The mentality was that the funds were free for all!
You see, when President Chakwera went to attend the funeral ceremony of late President John Joseph Pombe Magufuli of the Republic of Tanzania mid last month, he made a heart-soothing eulogy which earned him praises and ululations from across Africa.
One renowned self styled pan African, Professor Patrick Etienno Lumumba touted Chakwera to the point of calling him the next Magufuli for Africa. Well, the eulogy was indeed fully packed with hope and inspiration for Africans! But look, just making an inspiring eulogy that earned him continent wide praises and being nicknamed the next Magufuli is just theoretical; what is more practical about that, is seeing Chakwera walking the talk and acting like Magufuli.
During his first term as a president for his country, Magulufuli used to pay surprise visits to government departments such as hospitals or immigration offices just to appreciate how such institutions were delivering services. Whenever he discovered that services were not being delivered to the satisfaction of the people; or corruption was at play, Magufuli could go an extra mile to immediately dismiss those who were running government business as usual.
At one point, he fired all civil servants; including top government officials for holding fake or no professional qualifications at all but had comfortable jobs in the Tanzanian civil service. According to him, it was such people who faltered efficiency and effectiveness in the civil service.
If Chakwera is to prove that he fits so well in the character of Magufuli, this is the opportune occasion for him. The Covid-19 funds expenditure report has revealed that even some of his own boys within the rank and file of Tonse administration are rotten. Let him now prove that he is worth the salt. The time is nigh!
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—As President Lazarus Chakwera is sitting on the much needed K6.2 billion audit report, a leaked report has revealed massive plunder of Covid-19 funds under his watch.
According to the report, which was circulated on social media by whistle blower Idriss Ali Nassah, Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DODMA) made dubious payment of conference packages to Umodzi Park.
The report also indicates a missing cash of about K12 million.
In August 2020 when the Ombudsman was investigating how Covid-19 funds were used between March to July 2020, DODMA staff paid themselves K2.3 million in allowances in order to prepare for a meeting with the Ombudsman.
The K6.2 billion Covid-19 money caused a storm after it was learnt that over 80 per cent of the money went into allowances for officials instead of fighting Covid-19 and Sixteen officials from the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) were arrested in connection with the same.
Meanwhile, there is increasing pressure on the government to release the results of an audit that President Lazarus Chakwera demanded two months ago on the expenditure of K6.2 billion Covid-19 funds.
On Thursday last week, Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) chairperson, Gift Trapence, gave government 21 days to release the audit report.
“It’s true we are giving the government 21 days to release the audit report as regards to the K6.2 billion. If the government will not comply, HRDC will have no choice but just to mobilise Malawians and go into the streets. We will just announce the date of the demonstrations after the 21 days,” he said.
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—Chief Resident Magistrate Patrick Chirwa has finally granted bail to 16 DODMA officials who were arrested over the abuse of K4.6 million Covid-19 funds.
The suspects re-applied for bail after the expiry of seven days that the Court gave to the State to conclude investigations.
In granting bail, Chirwa said the court is satisfied with the application by the defence.
The State did not object to the bail application but asked the Court to use its discretion to give strict bail conditions so that the suspects are able to honour court proceedings.
The officials include the department’s deputy director Mr Fyawupi Mwafongo, DODMA Public Relations Officer Mr Chipiliro Khamula and 14 others.
The K6.2 billion Covid-19 money caused a storm after it was learnt that over 80 per cent of the money went into allowances for officials instead of fighting Covid-19.
Mwafongo was charged with abuse of office where particulars stated that he authorized an amount over K4 million to be used as allowances and when asked he failed to account for it.
The second charge is theft by public servant and this applies on all the 16 where the particulars are that the 16 received allowances worth k4, 250, 000 for attending a meeting in Mponera at Linde motel for two days and failed to account for it.
10 more DODMA officials arrested in connection with abuse of Covid-19 funds
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—Police have arrested 10 more officials at the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DODMA) in connection with the abuse of K6.2 billion Covid-19 funds.
Malawi Police spokesperson James Kadadzera has confirmed of the development, saying the 10 will be charged with theft by servant.
The arrest of the 10 officials comes barely two days after the police arrested DODMA Deputy Director Fyawupi Mwafongo on Tuesday for his alleged involvement in the scandal.
The department’s commissioner Mr James Chiusiwa was fired by President Lazarus Chakwera amid abuse of K6.2 billion Covid-19 response funds , widely known as Covidgate.
President Chakwera also fired the co-chairperson of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19, Dr John Phuka and suspended further officials, some “for failing to maintain proper records of how such critical funds were used and others for defying my directive to submit reports weekly to my office”.
When officers appeared before the taskforce with their reports on how they spent 6.2bn kwacha (£5.8m), only one official had properly backed up reports.
Pressure had been mounting on the President to prove how the millions set aside for planning and public awareness, facilitating the return of Malawians from South Africa border patrols and supporting victims of gender-based violence was being spent.
DoDMA`s Director for responsible and recovery, Harris Kachali leads ADB officials during the tour of the affected irrigation scheme areas in Chikwawa
Blantyre, May 08, 2019: Department of Disaster Management Affair’s (DoDMA) Director of Recovery, Harris Kachale on Monday announced that Chikwawa district council will receive $27 million from the African Development Bank for recovery process.
Kachale said this at Chilenga Irrigation Scheme in the area of Traditional Authority Makhwila at the end of an inspection exercise of irrigation schemes that were damaged in the district during the recent flooding.
“We are here with officials from African Development Bank and Chikwawa district council to assess the impact of the floods especially on infrastructure damage. And having moved around the districts, it is quite evident that these floods caused a lot of damage on infrastructure.
“To this effect, the Africa Development Bank is pumping in resources to the tune of $27 million mainly for recovery and resilience so we will be looking at infrastructure that was damaged such as roads, irrigation schemes, and schools,” said Kachale.
However, the director was quick to warn Chikwawa district council to award contracts to credible contractors who will build infrastructures that will be able to withstand disasters.
“This is a lot of money as such we would want this time around to have infrastructures that will withstand, so we will work closely with the council to ensure that this is done,” said Kachale.
He added that the recovery program will kick-start end June this year upon completion of assessment and identification of contractors.
Earlier, Chairperson for Chilenga Irrigation Scheme, Montfort Kandiado appealed for assistance from well-wishers to assist them in rehabilitating the scheme.
“The floods damaged the weir at the intake and pipes that transport the water to the scheme resulting in very few farmers receiving water as of now.
“Normally we plant three times a year in the scheme and if our problems are not rectified in good time, a lot of farmers will not be able to cultivate in the scheme,” lamented Kandiado.
Helicopter dropping Relief to Flood Victims Department of Disaster Management Affairs
The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) has recorded 56 deaths and 577 injuries. Three people have been reported missing.
A total of 184,589 households (approximately 922,945 people) have been affected and 16,545 households (approximately 82, 725 people) have been displaced. Most of the displaced families are living in camps. So far, a total of 187 camps have been established in the affected districts.
Assessments to establish the extent of damage in all the 14 affected districts are still underway.
The department continues to provide and coordinate search and rescue operations as well as the provision of relief assistance to the affected people.
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