Maravi

AID Freeze worries govt

AID Freeze worries govt
Written by Chibaula Silwamba
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 2:05:42 PM

CHIEF government spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha yesterday said the donors' decision to freeze financial aid to the Ministry of Health will have serious implications.

Commenting on the decision by the Swedish government - through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) - and the Dutch/Netherlands government's decision to suspend their financial support to the Ministry of Health following allegations of theft of K10 billion [about US $2 million] by some ministry officials, Lt Gen Shikapwasha said the two donor countries had not officially informed the Zambian government about their decision to suspend their financial aid to the Ministry of Health.

"We have not received official notification yet, we will respond as we receive official notification and we continue to engage them. Aid given to the Ministry of Health is for the people, is for the poor that require this assistance, so as government we continue to engage them. If we reach the decision we will tell the people that this is the decision," said Lt Gen Shikapwasha, who is also minister of information and broadcasting services, in an interview.

"We are not blaming them [donors] for making a decision like that but we want to say once they tell us officially that 'this is what has happened,' we want to appeal to them to say, 'look! Whilst this thing is going on, it's important to help us tighten our structures and help us continue to provide aid to our people.'"

Lt Gen Shikapwasha, therefore, said it was important that the government and the donors continue to discuss and find ways of how they could resolve the issues at hand.

"There are many implications if the donors insist to freeze aid; first of all, the target areas of this aid are going to suffer and as Zambians we should really feel very saddened by a development like that because it does not help the purpose for us providing good medical facilities for our people," Lt Gen Shikapwasha said.

"Even as we report it's necessary for us to be able to give a positive picture that will help our people in Zambia."

He said the problems of abuse of public funds were not unique to the Zambian civil service.

"You know something, in the UK the Speaker, what happened to the Speaker? What was the issue about? The monies! So these problems are everywhere. It's how you handle the after effects of these issues. Parliament in the UK is not going to close down because this has happened. Parliament structures there have to be strengthened," said Lt Gen Shikapwasha.

"That is what we want to do to the Ministry of Health, in other words, when we find a situation like that can the donors help us to strengthen our structures in the Ministry of Health so that this aid can go to the people."

The Dutch government last week Thursday announced that it had suspended aid to Zambia's health sector following corruption allegations in the Ministry of Health.

The Netherlands contributes about 13 million Euros [about K92 billion] annually for the funding of rural health care provision, the prevention of malaria, tuberculosis and HIV, and the training of medical staff in Zambia.

The decision by the Netherlands government to suspend aid follows the move by Sida to stop its planned release of funds [about K59 billion] to the Ministry of Health following the alleged K10 billion scam unearthed by the ACC.

Recently, the ACC unearthed a corruption scam in which over K10 billion government funds were alleged to have been corruptly obtained from the Ministry of Health by some public servants.

Labels: ACC, DONORS, MINISTRY OF HEALTH, RONNIE SHIKAPWASHA

posted by MrK @ 1:08 PM