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!
