Malawi Parly committees to quiz govt over K50m allocation for Cancer Centers
Parliamentary Committees on Health and Population and Budget and Finance have vowed to press Government to explain on the K50million allocation meant for cancer centers.
This, according to Parliamentarians follows failure by government to utilize the funds that were allocated for the same in the previous budgets.
Paul Chibingu Member of Parliament (MP) for Mwanza West and Chair Person for the health and population committee said MPs were surprised why government kept on allocating funds for cancer centers in every budget yet nothing was happening on the ground.
Chibingu who attended the budget analysis meeting organized by Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN) in Lilongwe threatened not to support the vote should government fail to come clear on the matter.
“We really understand the importance of the health sector to the country’s development. However there is need for transparency on matters we suspect foul play,” explained Chibingu.
“At least this time around government should tell Malawians the truth on what it needs to do with the money after it had failed in previous budgets,” he added.
Nick Masebo, Member of Parliament for Chitipa North and member of the budget and finance committee said apart from the K50 Million, the group was also concerned with the huge allocation of money to the office of the minister of health.
“In the 2013/14 budget government has increased funding to the minister of health’s office from K3 million to K28 Million, this is unrealistic,” bemoaned Masebo.
Teleza Mwale, MP for Mchinji West also questioned why government had set aside K1 million for unforeseen circumstances.
Mwale said government should have channeled the money to the much needed programme rather than waiting for something unseen.
“What unforeseen circumstances are we talking about here, please we need clearance from government on the issue,” she said.
On the other hand, members had asked government to explain why the delay in as far as construction of Nkhatabay Hospital was concerned.
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