Early this October, the headline on the front page of the
Daily News announced “Capital Hill Billion Mess”. It was learned that billions
of kwachas had been looted by government officials. The German ambassador
warned that the Malawian government cannot blame the computer for corruption;
people ran computers and the computers did not commit the fraud and the
Malawian people and the donors are entitled to know the truth. The Malawian government used the Integration
Financial Management Information Services (Ifmis), a computer software in government
payment system.
Since then
investigations revealed that at least 90 billion k had been pilfered from the
Federal Treasury from 2009 to 2012 and the current Vice president is linked to
the looting and the past regime is at least responsible for the systematic
stealing with at least seven identifiable schemes including paying off
companies which did not provide any services, cashing checks without vouchers
and cashing large sums without the signing off by senior authorities. In view of the large sum of money missing
from the treasury, IMF has now withheld seven billion k. from Malawi. Some
politicians lament the fact that programs which have started will not be able
to continue until the latter part of next year because of the withheld money. But
what about the harm caused by this looting?
The news
broke while President Joyce Banda of Malawi was visiting US. She came back and fired her cabinet
members. However it is now emerged as
well that since 2012 while she has been President; 20 billion k has also been
stolen from the coffer. A week after the
news broke, Britain
announced it would send a forensic auditor team to help to identify the
perpetrators. Three commercial banks in Blantyre have been
authorized by the Malawian Reserve Bank to honor government checks of any
amount which seems a recipe for fraud. It has also come to light that the
previous president Mutharika when he came into power in 2004 declared his
wealth at 150 million k but when he died of a heart attack in 2012 his wealth
had grown to 60 billion k. He was found
to have three bank accounts in Australia,
Singapore
and the Isle of Man. One wonders when he thought he would have time to enjoy
all that with three houses in Singapore
and two presidential flats in Australia
to boot. He evidently did not count on
the fact that despite all the wealth he was powerless to determine how long he
had on this earth.
Corruption
is probably rampant in many Africa countries
given the fact that many of them receive huge amount of foreign aids. People at the government level must be
tempted to siphon off large sums of money hoping that their misdeeds would
never be discovered. Or do they feel
that they are entitled to some of them?
When
Malawians are asked what they think about the stealing, they are not surprised
but express disgust that hard-earned money of the taxpayers and donors which
can be used to improve healthcare conditions and the school systems are
pocketed by greedy politicians. Foreign
donors are equally outraged by the news.
The
newspaper enumerated what the 110 billion kwacha could do for the healthcare
sector, agriculture and the school system.
For 110 billion kwacha, 40,000 medical doctors could be trained at the Medical College, 16,500 classroom blocks could
have been built so children do not have to huddle under trees to study, 44
irrigation schemes could have been completed within a year. This last thing is of utmost importance to Malawi given that it still depends on rain-fed
agriculture when it has vast supply of water: the lake and the Shire River. The irrigation scheme named the Green Belt
Initiative stalls because of lack of funding.
The food insecurity problem of Malawi could have been solved if
indeed this scheme works
The budget
for the healthcare sector is around 48 billion k per year, just about half of
what was stolen from 2009 to 2012.
Almost all the healthcare facilities that I visited in Nsanje District
are in need of maintenance and repair and ambulances are either non-functioning
or in need of fuel for their operation. The
District Health Officer (DHO) of Nsanje
District Hospital
often has to request fuel aids from MSF. He has been quoted in The Nation as to
the fact that 20 billion k could provide all the health services in Nsanje
district for 80 years and 110 billion for 440 years.
The other day after Grand Ward
Rounds, one of the medical assistants informed the DHO that they were out of
bandages and plasters (Band-Aid in British English, they use plasters here to
secure IV lines). The DHO lowered his
head and said,”I suppose we just have to work hard to persuade the patients not to get
sick.”
School started during the first
week of September, at least half the children walk to school barefoot and many
carry no books, and some have only an exercise book in a plastic bag. In the south parts of Nsanje, numerous
students gather around a board under a big tree while their teachers hold classes
there. This week while we drove to
Sankhulani healthcare facility, the crowded primary classrooms have no windows;
the bricks border the window frames are loosening and falling apart.
If the politicians had a heart
and a conscience they would not have looted the Malawians and endangered their
lives because of a half-baked healthcare system or the children which should be
the future of Malawi
of their much needed education. We pass
schools with NGO’s programs on school meals.
While many NGO’s spend time, effort and money to feed these children at
school, the politicians choose to enrich themselves even at the expense of
stealing food from the mouths of these children.
One seldom
sees fat ordinary Malawians at least in the villages, the politicians appearing
on the newspapers are often rotund, double chinned, meaty and certainly are by
no means starving. Joyce Banda announced
that the country silos are suddenly low or almost empty of maize and the people
will be starving. Emergency measures have
to be taken to buy maize from South Africa
and Zambia
to feed the country. Did someone also
siphon off some maize to feed their bellies?
The
children here sometimes ask, “Give me my money!”
I reply, ”I
don’t have your money.”
A kid once
ran past me and said, “Give me my money buying shoes.”
I have now
learned to say,”Mundipatse ndalama zanga!”
(Give me my money in Chichewa). This
often surprises them so much that they just stand there staring at me with
their mouths wide open.
The
politicians behave as if the public funds are theirs to take and spend. Indeed on one of the front pages of The
Nation were shown some of the new homes built by the “looters”. At the same time there was an article where
the World Bank was quoted as saying that if US would contribute 4.5 billion
dollars to Africa to develop its agriculture and boosts its development and productivity
it would solve the hunger problem. It stated that 70% of the African women are
in agriculture but they are not allowed to own land because of local customs
and many Africans lamentably survive on 1.25 US dollars per day. Would this amount of money really solve the
hunger problem if corruption is rampant?
I rather doubt it.
No comments:
Post a Comment