BY IDRISS ALI NASSAH
What, exactly, was the charade at BICC all about?
1. DODMA wrote to me 10 days ago stating that it had the expenditure reports of the K6.2 billion but would not make them available because they had been submitted to the National Audit Office for “audit and verification”.
2. If what DODMA said 10 days ago was true, then yesterday’s meeting should have been for ONLY those agencies and clusters with issues that needed explanation in their already submitted reports.
3. Yet it seemed that yesterday was for the purpose of submitting reports. What this it means is that DODMA was lying all along. Why was DODMA lying that it had the expenditure reports when, clearly, it did not have them. Who told DODMA to officially write the lies, and for what purpose?
4. Yesterday was a joke in many ways, and I am afraid it seems that some people are determined to either defy or embarrass President Chakwera. Departments were simply saying:
“5 August, 2020: Paid K100 million to police for border patrols”
“6 August, 2020: Transferred K85 million to MDF for patrols”
“8 August, 2020: Transferred K50 million to support victims of gender-based violence”
“10 August, 2020: transferred K535 million for receiving Malawians.”
But that is not what the President has demanded. What the President is demanding, and what Malawians want to know, is simple; if you paid K535 million for “receiving Malawians”, then please show us who was paid, for what purpose and where did the recipient sign, what was the payment used for, what is the backing evidence to support that expenditure claim in terms of receipts and payment vouchers…
5. In the end, the BICC “meeting” was yet another fruitless and wasteful expenditure. The concerned clusters could have simply been summoned to one of the many boardrooms at Capital Hill to account for their role in the mismanagement of K6.2 billion of poor people’s money. *
Now, we appreciate all those Malawians of goodwill who, disgusted by the charade yesterday, are reaching out with crucial information that is critical to unlocking how the money was (ab)used, and who the culprits are. It is official. This is criminal. We have COVIDGATE, for which there should be severe consequences.
