Chakwera demands report on Covid-19 expenditure

President Lazarus Chakwera has warned that he will fire any controlling officer and head of the Covid-19 Cluster who will not provide detailed expenditure report on the K6.2 billion meant for Coronavirus response.

The warning comes few days amid rising public suspicion on how the said money was used as no controlling officer submitted a report on how the funds were spent despite disbursed last year.

Reacting to the development through his address to the nation on Covid-19 situation last night, the Malawi leader has condemned the maladministration.

“But here I must close with a warning. Two weeks ago I said that every kwacha of Covid-19 funds will have to be accounted for.

“To this date, there are controlling officers in various ministries and heads of various clusters of the Covid-19 response team who have not submitted reports of how they spent their allocation of the K6.2 billion that Treasury disbursed to them last year. This is completely unacceptable,” Chakwera said.

He has since summoned all controlling officers and heads of clusters to meet the Presidential Taskforce on Covid-19 within 48 hours and explain how they used the taxpayer’s money.

“I have therefore summoned all controlling officers and heads of clusters to meet my Taskforce in 48 hours and account for how they used that money.

“Make no mistake: Any cluster that either fails to account for the money it received or is found to have abused their funds is a cluster in which heads will roll,” Chakwera said.

Meanwhile, government has so far received close to K2.2 billion from well-wishers as a Covid-19 response funds.

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