Tracing Covid-19 response funds

Two years after Covid-19 hit, permanent facilities for screening, treating and holding entrants into the country with suspected infectious diseases are yet to take shape despite billions of kwacha allocated for the response plan.

This revelation is among findings of an investigative report by the Office of the Ombudsman which found that a bulk of resources allocated to the National Covid-19 Response Plan launched in 2020 were spent on non-core activities such as allowances.

The Malawi Government is also yet to start construction of four specialised infectious disease treatment centres to manage outbreaks as indicated in the 2020 response plan and the Social Economic Recovery Plan (Serp) launched in December 2021 which set 2022 as the deadline to achieve this target.

The Nation investigation, which included site visits and corroborated interviews with district health offices (DHOs), show that there is little progress towards achieving the targets with four months to the end of the calendar year 2022.

Serp set 2022 as deadline for government to “install permanent facilities at all border entry points for screening, treating and holding entrants into the country with suspected relevant contagious or infectious diseases” at a cost of K6 billion.

Visits to Marka in Nsanje, Dedza, Mwami Border in Mchinji and Songwe in Karonga established that these ports of entry only had temporary structures erected at the on-set of Covid-19.

At both Marka and Mchinji border posts, screening and testing of Covid-19 is conducted in erected tents, usually manned by a single healthcare worker.

On the other hand, at Dedza Border Post, there is a small room reserved for Covid-19 screening and testing as well as an additional container mounted for holding suspected cases.

There is a similar arrangement at Songwe Border Post, which has a spacious room for screening and testing, including a laboratory.

In separate interviews, Chitipa and Mwanza DHOs confirmed permanent structures were yet to be put in place.

Nsanje district director of health and social services Dr. Gilbert Chapweteka said he was not sure when a permanent structure would be constructed at Marka.

But Mwanza district director of health and social services Dr. Ireen Zuze said while she had heard about plans to have a permanent structure at the border, she had no information when this will be constructed.

In Dedza, district director of health and social services Dr. Misha Stande said the facilities in use were temporary ones.

“For Dedza, I would not say we have any permanent structure. We have what we have been using, but there is new border infrastructure coming up and I think that will be included,” he said.

On his part, Karonga district director of health and social services Dr. David Sibale said they do not have a permanent structure, but a designated space for both testing, including a laboratory.

In Chitipa, a temporary structure was seen erected a few kilometres from the entry point because, according to district director of health and safety services Dr. Wilson Ching’ani, they took advantage of some existing housing structures.

Within this year, according to the Serp, government is expected to also build “four specialised infectious disease treatment centres in strategic locations of the country’s four regions to manage outbreaks of infectious diseases” to the tune of K20 billion.

Two months ago, government invited tenders through the press for the construction of the centres, but The Nation was not able to establish if the deadline for construction will be met.

Under Serp, government also set the year 2021/2022 to train and recruit mental health specialists in all district and central hospitals.

While central hospitals have had such specialists even before Covid-19, district hospitals do not have the same.

A senior official at Ministry of Health described the plan as “quite ambitious” and cast doubt its being achieved.

Ministry of Health has not responded to our questionnaire seeking an update on these activities, even after several reminders since June this year.

The struggle to implement the activities comes on top of reports of abuse of Covid-19 funds where personal allowances consume more resources than those for actual implementation of activities.

Earlier this week, Ombudsman Grace Malera released a report exposing how the extra K17 billion released to fund the national Covid-19 response plan was abused through payment of unjustified allowances over other crucial activities.

These findings follow two other reports from the Office of the Ombudsman and National Audit Office which revealed misuse K6.2 billion Covid-19 funds allocated in 2020.

Besides local resources, our previous tracking of Covid-19 funds at the end of 2021 showed that donors, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the African Development Bank and Unicef pumped in about K300 billion towards Malawi’s Covid-19 National Response Plan.