Parliament wants audit on NAC

The Parliamentary Committee on HIV, Aids and Nutrition has asked government to table a report on the investigations into allegations of fraud and abuse of office at National Aids Commission (NAC).

Committee chairperson Deus Gumba Banda made the recommendation yesterday when he presented a Report on HIV, Aids and Trends and Financing in Malawi compiled after NAC management was summoned to Parliament earlier this year.

He said: “In line with allegations of financial misappropriation at NAC, government through the Ministry of Health should table in Parliament a report on the investigative audit that was conducted following these allegations.”

The National Audit Office (NAO) carried out an initial audit of NAC which the board rejected because the audit had extended to areas which were not specified in the terms of reference.

The results of the audit have not been made public to date.

Banda said their inquiries into the allegations were a result of NAC being stripped of the Principal Recipient (PR) status by the Global Fund on Malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV and Aids which raised eyebrows.

Hot on the heels of the news, the then executive director and a few other officials were suspended pending investigations.

“The committee could not help but question the timing of the events and emphasised that it could not be mere coincidence that as financial mismanagement reports were heightened in the media, it was at exactly that same time that NAC failed to, for the first time ever, qualify for the PR status of the Global Fund,” Banda said.

The committee concluded that NAC had failed to impress Global Fund on how to prioritise and allocate financial resources and alleged abuse of funds had resulted in mistrust, anger, doubt and Cashgate at Capital Hill worsened matters.

Even after NAC officials clarified that the commission did not finance Mulhako wa Allhomwe or a fundraising event by Beautify Malawi (Beam) Trust, but instead used the functions to disseminate HIV and Aids information, the committee remained unconvinced.

Demands by some civil society organisations that Beam should return the money to NAC were met with confusion as some individuals returned the money publicly but into the hands of the Office of the President and Cabinet.

Following the tabling of the report, members of Parliament (MPs) are expected to debate it on Thursday next week. n