CSOs say won’t relent on NAC
Civil society organisations (CSOs) have vowed not to relent in providing checks and balances to government after they were branded as unpatriotic for allegedly reporting the abuse at National Aids Commission (NAC) to the Global Fund on Tuberculosis, HIV/Aids and Malaria.
The Global Fund has since removed NAC as a principal recipient (PR) of funds for the HIV and Aids response opting for Ministry of Health and two international organisations—Action Aid International and World Vision.
Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitations (CHRR) executive director Timothy Mtambo, in an interview yesterday, dismissed accusations which Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture Kondwani Nankhumwa made last week that the CSOs were unpatriotic for reporting the issue to Global Fund instead of engaging the government to find local solutions.
However, Nankhumwa yesterday insisted that providing checks and balances should be done through engaging government locally not reporting anomalies to the international community.
Speaking on behalf of Manet-Plus, Malawi Health Equity Network (Mhen), Centre for the Development of People (Cedep) and several others, Mtambo said by pointing out poor governance issues and calling for Beautify Malawi Trust and Mulhakowa Alhomwe to pay back millions to NAC, CSOs were protecting the interests of Malawians.
He said: “We are being effective. We will not clap hands for people damaging this country. We will continue being unpatriotic since those calling us such don’t know the meaning of patriotism.”
But when queried if indeed they reported NAC developments to the Global Fund prompting the fund to remove it from the PR status, Mtambo said the world is a global village and the Global Fund or United Nations agencies have representatives in the country who could have reported the issues to head offices.
In response, Nankhumwa said it would be a welcome development if the CSOs went back to their obligation of providing checks and balances to government by engaging them when the CSOs discover an anomaly.
