THE Ministry of Finance has ordered that all government entities must submit income and expenditure returns on all COVID-19 funds received from the Treasury by 5th of every month to the Office of the Accountant General.
And Secretary to the Treasury Fredson Yamba has advised all companies, individuals wishing to donate COVID-19-related funds to deposit the cash into a GRZ bank account.
Sources have told News Diggers! that during a COVID-19 meeting chaired by Vice-President Inonge Wina on Wednesday, a sharp exchange of words ensued between Finance Minister Dr Bwalya Ng’andu and Health Minister Dr Chitalu Chilufya over accountability regarding pandemic funds.
The source explained that Ng’andu expressed dissatisfaction with the measures put in place to ensure accountability of the funds under the ministry of health, leading to a strong verbal exchange between the two Cabinet ministers.
In a statement released, Thursday, Yamba guided that all government entities must submit income and expenditure returns on all COVID-19 funds received from the Treasury by 5th of every month to the Office of the Accountant General.
“All Institutions or Individuals who would like to make ‘cash donations’ towards the fight of COVID-19 are advised to deposit such funds to any of the GRZ COVID-19 Commercial Bank Accounts. These funds will in turn be transferred to a designated account held at Bank of Zambia to be managed by the National Treasury to deposit such funds to any of the GRZ COVID-19 Commercial Bank Accounts. These funds will in turn be transferred to a designated account held at Bank of Zambia to be managed by the National Treasury,” Yamba stated.
“All Ministries, Provinces and Public Service Controlling Agencies are expected to submit income and expenditure returns on all COVID-19 funds received from the Treasury by 5th of every month to the Office of the Accountant General in accordance with Section 11(1) (p) of the Public Financial Management Act, 2018. In the case of Aid-In-Kind, Ministries, Provinces and Public Service Controlling Agencies are expected to receive and dispose such through the procedures stipulated in the law. In view of this, Ministries, Provinces and Public Service Controlling Agencies will be required to submit monthly returns on all Aid-In-Kind transactions to the Office of the Accountant General, Ministry of Finance. All recipient Ministries, Provinces and Public Service Controlling Agencies are expected to maintain separate records and reports on the utilisation of donations from Cooperating Partners.”
And Yamba stressed the need for all the COVID-19-related funds to be properly managed and accounted for.
“Ministries, Provinces and Public Service Controlling Agencies are expected to ensure that appropriated and donated resources are used only for activities related to COVID-19. On a frequent basis, the Treasury will submit a consolidated return of receipts and expenditure from Ministries, Provinces and Public Service Controlling Agencies to the Controller of Internal Audit and Office of the Auditor General for verification. The need to ensure accountability of resources can never be over emphasised, especially in the prevailing situation of this deadly pandemic,” stated Yamba.
4 Responses
The Finance Minister should put his foot down and ensure that all donor funds are accounted for. All expenditure must be JUSTIFIED!
Good Stewardship, transparency and Accountability of donor funds has potential to unlock more Goodwill donations. What is needed is to develop a Service Level Agreement (SLA) to streamline operations. MOH must be reminded that public funds are subject to Financial Reporting rules!
Dr B. Ngandu and Yamba please keep watch on that man he is bad news he is under ACC investigations so he is a suspect he doesn’t have clean hands in fact he has very long hands and feet he doesn’t see anything that glitters. Why have u left him to receive donations? After this pandemic he is going to be the richest chap in zambia.
This is what should have been done in the first place. The public should have been advised via various media of the accounts to deposit into. At this stage i am sure many govt ministries that received cash donations are not able to account for the money.
With such manouevering, let’s be wary of ghost covid 19 patients