Maravi

‘Zambia still qualifies to access funding despite MoH scam’

‘Zambia still qualifies to access funding despite MoH scam’
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Fri 09 Apr. 2010, 04:01 CAT

ZAMBIA still qualifies to access about US $700 million funding from a key US foreign aid agency despite last year's K27 billion financial scam at the Ministry of Health, finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane has said.

Zambia last year became eligible to access large-scale grant funding under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to fund infrastructure projects in energy, road, water and tertiary education among other sectors.

The country's ability to qualify and sustain its eligibility depends on adhering to three conditionalities namely investment into human resources, mostly, through education and health, good governance, the fight against corruption and allowing free market economic fundamentals to drive economic growth.

Dr Musokotwane told journalists on Wednesday that the US allowed Zambia to remain eligible for MCC grant owing to the government's reaction to the scandal which saw key donors withdraw funding from the donor-dependent ministry.

“The issue at the Ministry of Health has been taken into account but that is only one among many issues,” Dr Musokotwane said. “But in any case, it's about 'how does the government handle a scandal that emerges like the one that did occur.' Was it handled in a manner that is that acceptable in the sense that if you go to any country and such a thing occurred the government would have expected to respond in a certain way? Did our government respond like that? And the answer of course is yes. But the important thing is that at all time, we must remain eligible because if we slip back, the programme can be delayed.”

Dr Musokotwane said Zambia had already submitted projects that it wanted funded via the MCC and the Americans were currently in the country evaluating the viability of the projects.

He, however, declined to mention the projects as that could only be done once, they had been implemented.

“When I was in Washington, I met the people responsible for this and they were very excited about the way in which the government of Zambia is preparing itself for this assistance,” said Dr Musokotwane. “The key issue about preparation is to identify interventions that the American government under this initiative can finance and once those interventions are implemented, then they should see the economy grow and at least to get poverty to be reduced.”

Labels: MINISTRY OF HEALTH, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE

posted by MrK @ 3:12 PM