NAO submits audit report on Ministry of Health looting

The National Audit Office (NAO) has finally submitted an audit report chronologizing on how some dishonest officials from Ministry of Health managed to loot the donated funds from the US- funded Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In December 2015, Malawi Government suspended 63  workers from the Ministry.

These included the Director of human resource, the Director of finance and two chief accountants to pave way for a thorough audit investigation over unjustified withdrawal of allowances and fuel abuse.

The dismissal of the health officials followed the complaint which the US-funded Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had made to the Malawi Government where it suspected that some officials were dipping their fingers into CDC coffers which were meant to address HIV and Aids problem.

However, in an interview with Nyasa Times, Ministry of Health spokesman, Adrian Chikumbe confirmed that NAO has indeed submitted the report to the Ministry but could not discuss the information contained in the report.

“I cannot diverge more from the report but what you can know at the moment is that NAO has finalised the audit and submitted the report to the Ministry,” said Chikumbe.

Ministry of Health Dr Peter Kumpalume told media that  the stolen money were in “millions”, adding that the US-
funded Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had written the ministry to complain that they suspected civil servants from the HIV and AIDS project were to be defrauding the said funds.

US ambassador to Malawi, Virginia Palmer, expressed the hope that the authorities “will identify those responsible for the looting and that they will be held accountable for the misuse of funds intended to improve the health of Malawian citizens.”

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