ACB To Scrutinize Ombudsman Report On Abuse Of Covid-19 Funds

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is this week, set to scrutinize the Ombudsman report to determine elements of fraud in the abuse of Covid-19 response funds.

The Ombudsman Martha Chizuma revealed massive abuse of Covid-19 response funds in a report titled ”Misplaced Priorities” released in Lilongwe, last Friday.

Chizuma disclosed that the Coordination Cluster of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 spent 79.8 percent of over 322 million kwacha on allowances.

The Office of the Ombudsman faulted the Ministry of Finance for opening a separate COVID-19 Funds account despite the existing Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DODMA) account.

Malawi has been receiving huge sums of money from various developmental partners in response to the Covid-19 since April this year.