Long wait for SKC, aides funeral expenses report

 Government has come under fire following a delay to release information on how much money was spent during the funerals of former vice-president (VP) Saulos Chilima and eight others who died in a plane crash in Mzimba on June 10 this year.

Minister of Information and Digitalisation Moses Kunkuyu on June 19 2024 promised that government would publicise the expenditure details in two days.

However, nearly two months later, the report is nowhere to be found.

Asked in a questionnaire why government has not yet published the details, Kunkuyu did not give reasons.

However, he said: “I am told the report is ready for submission to the [funeral] committee. We should do that this coming week.”

But Ministry of Finance spokesperson Williams Banda said the funerals’ budget was drawn from the Unforeseen Vote, which is money set aside to cover possible unforeseen future expenses.

He said the expenditure was auditable.

“In any case, the pending was done by OPC [Office of the President and Cabinet [OPC], you need to check with OPC,” said Banda.

OPC publicist Robert Kalindiza said consolidating the expenditures was challenging as several departments were involved.

He said: “This was a significant disaster with a lot of departments involved. The police, health, army and many more. All these had their budgets,” he said while confirming that the report was ready now.

Meanwhile, Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency (Csat) has said it was unfortunate that “Malawians have to always hunt for such public expenditure reports”.

Csat executive director Willy Kambwandira said in response to our questionnaire: “Government

 Tongas

was proactive in setting a date for disclosure of all expenses incurred during the funerals.

“Its failure to walk the talk on the same raises serious accountability questions, but also speculation of abuse of the resources.”

While demanding that OPC releases the report, Kambwandira said continued delays erode public trust.

“In the spirit transparency and accountability, it is demanded that government makes public the expenditure report.

“Otherwise continued delays in making the report public may only confirm that some took advantage to abuse taxpayers’ money,” he said.

Chilima and eight others died after a military plane he was flying in crashed in Mzimba en route to Mzuzu from Lilongwe.

Others on board were former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri, and other aides, including Lukas Kapheni, Chisomo Chimaneni, Dan Kanyemba and Abdul Lapukeni.

The flight was operated by Colonel Sambalopa, Major Flora Selemani and Major Aidin from MDF who also perished in the crash.