Mw Govt Downplays Global Fund Under-Utilization Fears

President Peter Mutharika signed Global Fund 
Partnership with Mark Dybul, 
Executive Director of the Global Fund 

The Malawi Government has refuted information sourced by the Parliamentary Committee on Nutrition, HIV and AIDS that the country has delayed in the use of the Global Fund money and there is risk of under-utilisation of the approved funds.

The entourage from the Ministry of Health lead by Secretary in the Ministry, McPhail Magwira and Chief of Health Services, Charles Mwansambo has enlighten the Parliamentary committee that there has been no delays in the use of the funds but Government has only faced a challenge of instituting the Project Implementation Unit (PIU).

On Wednesday, the team from Ministry of Health was meeting with the committee on issues on Nutrition, HIV and AIDS but the clarification on the issues followed worries expressed by the committee it got information that there has been no action on the ground in terms of use of approved funds by the principle recipients and the committee feared risk that the country will under-utilise the funds come 2017.

Responding to this question, Mr. McPhail Magwira, Secretary in the Ministry of Health said the Ministry has already started utilizing the money, however, he explained that the only area that delayed in the Global Fund programme was putting together of Project Implementation Unit (PIU) and not utilisation of the money.

"Despite the fact that the unit is not in place, we were allowed to proceed to utilize the funds.  So, the fact that the PIU is not in place and despite the fact that we needed to start in January, but in terms of resource utilization we have already started.” confirmed Magwira

He told the Committee that although it took long to put together PIU, Government has now resolved the problem as it has put together all the necessary staff there.

"This was the case as most of the members of staff from PIU are seconded from  Government except for the very few posts. We have already advertise the posts but in the interim we have also made arrangement for the Project Manager to come in to put the unit in place." said explained 

Chef of Health Services in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Charles Mwansambo shared Magwira sentiments by further assuring the committee that the money from Global Fund have been used.

“Indeed we were supposed to start from the 1st of January and am pleased to report that the Global Fund has provided moneys to Ministry of Health and to other principle recipients, ActionAid and World Vision.So the funds are in the country and were transferred in December for the activities that we said we are going to do that period. 

So, there is no reason to worry, the funds have already started to come in for specific activities that were targeted for the first months that were slightly delayed because of PIU." He said

Cementing on Magwira's justification of the delays in organising PIU office, Mwansambo explained to the committee that the delay to organise the PIU chiefly originated from the reason that non of the Government officers qualified from the interviews that were conducted for the post of managing PIU following advice from Global Fund that PIU management should be seconded from Government because from experience elsewhere, such officers stay even if  Global Fund moves out. 

“So, we went back to Global fund to ask them if we could recruit from outside, now, they have given us ok." He said adding "So, some of the people will be recruited from outside the market while the supporting team will be from Government. That is why it was slightly delayed."

Mwansambo also downplayed fears that National Aids Commission (NAC) is facing problems after it failed to become a principle recepient of Global Fund.

He said "The main role of NAC is to coordinate national response and they are ably doing that with support from various donors including World Bank, so, they are able to play that function."

“With the new funding model, the Global fund did advise countries to go for dual tracking where you get a principal recipient from Government and another from non-governmental organization. So, for Malawi since most of the biomedical part was being conducted by the Ministry of Health, when they advertised for the principle recipient, Ministry of Health applied and NAC applied also. Of course, since we were the ones implementing, we had a competitive advantage over NAC and that is why we got the funding but at present the other two principle recipients are ActionAid and World Vision and these are implementing the non-biomedical part of the project." He said 

"So, I don’t think NAC is at disadvantage at present or there are problems at present." Added Mwansambo

Malawi and the Global Fund strengthened their partnership by signing grants worth more than US$332 million in October last year, to expand treatment and prevention for HIV, TB and Malaria and build resilient and sustainable systems for health. 

The signing brought the total Global Fund commitment to Malawi to US$616 million from 2014 to 2017.

The HIV and TB grants total US$298 million and the malaria grants US$34 million. Malawi has also committed US$30 million of its domestic resources for procurement of health products and to strengthen health systems.

Investments through the grant will enable Malawi to provide HIV treatment for 745,000 patients by the end of 2017, which represents 70 percent of the people in need. The grants will be implemented jointly by the Ministry of Health and two non-governmental organizations, World Vision and ActionAid who will implement the grants directly, strengthening the community-based response to the diseases.

HIV Bill At Cabinet Level-Ministry Of Health

The HIV Prevention and Management Bill is now under Cabinet Committee on Legal Affairs for consideration says Ministry of Health.

This was disclosed on Wednesday evening by a delegation from the Ministry of Health during the encounter with Parliamentary Committee on Nutrition, HIV & Aids. 

Dr. Charles Mwansambo, Chief of Health Services in the Ministry of Health said on 2nd March this year the bill was presented to the Cabinet in its original form as proposed by the Special Law report.

“After Special Law Commission report was prepared it had to be presented to Cabinet Committee on Legal Affairs to look at it.” Confirmed Mwansambo

According to the presentation made by the Ministry to the Committee, indicates that the bill was presented to the Cabinet Committee for consideration just after consultations with Parliamentary Women Caucus.

The committee was further informed that Ministry of Justice will soon be reviewing the bill based on the recommendations from the Cabinet Committee on Legal Affairs possibly in May this year and that presentation of the bill to the full Cabinet by Minister of Health will possibly be later in June.

The ministry also indicated that the presentation of the Bill to Parliament will be done after the Cabinet approves the bill possibly in July this year.

Among other issues, Mwansambo informed the Parliamentary Committee that there are no contentious issues in the bill because those were addressed during the time the bill was presented to the wider grouping before it was presented to the Cabinet Legal Affairs Committee. 

The purpose of the bill is among others to provide a comprehensive legislative and institutional framework for combating preventing and managing HIV and AIDS using human rights approach as well as to promote and protect all people in Malawi to access HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services.

Malawi began to work on the bill since 2009 through the Law Commission and the process of developing it involved Parliamentary Committee on HIV and AIDS, People Living with HIV (PLHIV), risks and vulnerable groups as well as service providers among other stakeholders.


Additional Information About the Bill


Guiding Principles of the Bill are; provide a multi-dimensional approach to the management and prevention of HIV &AIDS, and promote human rights of key and other vulnerable population including access to remedies where human rights of people living with HIV & AIDS are violated.

The Bill intends to achieve the following:

• Create a vibrant institutional framework for effective enforcement of the HIV legislation

• Promote gender equality on impact of HIV and AIDS on women and cultural practices

• Prevent spread of HIV and promote human rights in terms of discrimination and equality, privacy and confidentiality, marriage and family life, property and access to judicial remedies.

• Enhance public health delivery systems in terms of testing for HIV infection and modes of testing

• Provide accurate and reliable information on HIV and AIDS in terms of regulation of information of information and misleading information.

• Provide equal employment opportunities and prohibit discrimination, adoption of HIV and AIDS workplace policies, and HIV and AIDS as an occupational hazard for service providers

• Provide for the role of non-formal and indigenous education 

• Apply criminal law for transmission and exposure offences, and accountability for HIV and AIDS related funds.

DPP To Justify Msonda's 'Kill Gays' Case Discontinuance To Legal Affairs Committee

Kachale: her office discontinued Msonda case

Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) has been summoned to appear before Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament on Thursday to explain about her office decision to discontinue with a case against politician, Kenneth (Ken) Msonda.

Early this year, Peoples Party (PP) Publicity and Administrative Secretary, Msonda, is allegedly to have openly suggested the killing of homosexuals as the only solution to end rising cases of homosexuality in the country. It is reportedly that through his Facebook post he further described homosexual people worse than dogs and “sons and daughters of the devil.”

Although the case was opened against him, DPP office applied to court for the discontinuance of the case.

Deputy Chairperson for Legal Affairs Committee, Maxwell Thyolera explains in an interview that DPP, Mary Kachale appearance before his Committee on Thursday afternoon is to hear more from her about the report she submitted to the committee on the discontinuance of the case.

“We want to know the reasons why she discontinued the case. That is why we have called her to brief the committee because we have the certificate that she has given to the committee, so we want to get more information when she appears tomorrow.” said Thyolera

Honorable Thyolera said Kachale summon came under Section 99 subsection 3 of the constitution which require DPP to give a reasons to Legal Affairs Committee for any criminal proceedings discontinued at any stage before judgment is delivered.

“It is mandatory by law that when the case has been discontinued the reasons as to why has the case has been discontinued has to be given to Legal Affairs of Parliament and it is for the checks and balances that those things should be looked into holistically by both arms of Government; both executive as well as legislatures.” He added

Thyolera indicated that his committee has specifically requested for the case of Republic Vs Msonda because it is the only matter that has recently been discontinued by DPP.

ATI Absence, Little Stakeholder Input In Budget Processes Affecting Social Accountability In Malawi- ActionAid Survey Reveals

A baseline survey by ActionAid Malawi has identified absence of legislations particularly Access to Information and lack of enough engagement in the budget process as some of the limiting factors for social accountability, monitoring and oversight capacity in the management of public resources in the country.

The study captured information on current levels of social accountability capacity within central government, legislatures, civil society and the media. Six gaps were identified and it came up with 21 recommendations.

Access to Information legislation absence was highlighted as one of the limiting factor to access to public information vital for tracking budget expenditures. The legislation is expected to be tabled in the next meeting of the National Assembly probably in May or June and once enacted, the legislation is expected to help Malawians to access to public information which is difficult at the moment.

It also found that resource allocation processes are influenced more by the Ministry of Finance since consultations are mainly top-down with minimum negotiations. The study therefore noted that supply side players do not engage with the process from beginning hence they are not able to contribute fully to the budget debates and it added that donors play critical role in the resource allocation.

Other highlighted gaps are: persistent corruption practices and theft; challenges in performance management of the budget; political influences and gender insensitive budgets; lack of clear guidelines on the process of needs assessments and strategic planning process and legislative provisions on the role of CSO's and oversight players in the confirming the identified needs and strategic plan documents.

Among recommendations includes; strengthen the decentralization parameters to allow more participation and prioritization of needs, addressing public resource management laws, strengthen capacity to produce publicly accessible monthly and quarterly programme based financial statements and spending reports as well as strengthen stakeholder capacity to do expenditure tracking.

The study was done prior to implementation of the first phase of a five year project 'Strengthening Social Accountability and Oversight Capacity for Rights-based Public Resources Management in Health and Agriculture in Malawi.' 

The project aims at developing capacities of stakeholders in social accountability on public finance and the findings are expected to inform activities for the implementation of the project expected to rollout in May this year. 

Reactions to the Report

On Thursday, ActionAid shared the report to CSOs, Legislatures from selected Parliamentary Committees and Media and the findings have received encouraging response.

Richard Chimwendo

Member of Parliament for Dowa East and Chairperson for Parliamentary Committee on Social and Community Affairs, Richard Chimwendo Banda agree with almost all the issues articulated in the findings.

In an interview, Chimwendo said the issue of lack of full budget negotiations and engagements during formulation is one of relevant issues that truly represent current state of Parliamentarians on their oversight role and participation in the budget process.

"Yes, I would like to agree with the findings. There are gaps on how we provide our input to the Budget. The main challenge is that we are given the budget documents a week or so before the passing of the budget and it is therefore always a challenge to scrutinize the budgets." He said 

He added; "We feel Access to Information is very important for us because we will be able to demand to access to budget documents earlier as well to access to information that can enable us monitor the progress of the budget."

He then said he is impressed with the project aims and hoped that empowerment of legislatures on budget tracking will help them carry out budget oversight role properly.

Chidanti Malunga

Equally, Deputy Chairperson for Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Honorable Jospeh Chidanti Malunga shared similar sentiments of Chimwendo by adding that "Sometimes we do not know what is contained in Agricultural sector budget."

"Although we are put in cluster Committees to look at the budget documents, still we are not given ample time to look at budget documents. It is important that some times when budget is formulated we have to have time, way in advance so that we scrutinize it and also involve stakeholders in the know to help us critically look at issues in the budget"  he said

Malunga also said ActionAid initiative is a step in the right direction and he is ready together with his committee to work with ActionAid in the project.

Chikondi Chavuta

Chikondi Chavuta, Regional Thematic Manager for Food Security, Climate Resilience and Emergencies at ActionAid Malawi said the new project is aimed at strengthening social accountability and oversight capacity for rights based public resources management in health and agriculture.

She said the project which is part of regional programme that includes Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania will help to improve the effectiveness of government system and structures to achieve accountability and transparency on budgeting utilization and implementation.

"We found out that structures that we operate at Government level are quite week and needs to be improved to ensure that they have proper service delivery." She said

Chavuta said the project intends to develop and enhance the capacity of stakeholders especially parliamentarians to oversee the two sectors. And also to develop capacity of issue based CSOs, media and Smallholder farmers to engage in social accountability monitoring and advocacy.

She further disclosed that the project also intends to develop capacity of relevant Government departments on public resources management, social accountability and oversight as well as reduce existing working relation gap between Government institutions and the stakeholders.

"This project will try to address that gap by building the capacities of all these areas to ensure that we reach the ultimate goal of ensuring social accountability and transparency and make sure that we have social accountability mechanisms in place that are benefiting especially people in poverty."

Chavuta also mentioned that CSOs, smallholders farmers, Media and Parliamentary Committees especially on Budget and Finance, Health and on Agriculture are expected to play a very critical role in the project on engagements and provide effective oversight that promotes social accountability in the health and agriculture sectors with a particular focus on HIV/AIDS, SRHR and food security.

ActionAid has been appointed to undertake a phase one of a 10-year project on behalf of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation to: 'Strengthen Social Accountability and Oversight Capacity for Rights-based Public Resources Management in Health and Agriculture in Southern Africa'.

Mphwiyo Shooting Case: Defense Ready To Finalise Testimony Next Month

The defense in the case of the attempted murder of former budget director Paul Mphwiyo has commited to finish giving defense testimony next month. 

Second accused, Pika Manondo is in his defense and the case has been adhourned to 18th and 19th April 2016 where court expect to hear from four witneses.

Director of Public Prosecution DPP Mary Kachale said State also believes that Defense is ready considering progress made so far.

“We have made significant progress because the defense has committed that the next sitting will be the last sitting on their part.” she said

Defense is expected to call four witnesses and hope to conclude in those two days.

Mphwiyo Shooting: Kasambara Found With Contempt For Threaten To Slap DPP

The High Court in Lilongwe has found with contempt of Court and subsequently censure the third accused Raphael Kasambara for threatening the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Mary Kachale that, he would have slapped her if sentiments she made inside the Court were made outside courtroom.

Kasambara: I would slap you

Kasambara answering attempted murder of Paul Mphwiyo was heard in court shouting "I would slap you for that" when the DPP raised an objection as he was cross-examining second accused Pika Manondo about the issue of distance and time it takes one to drive to Mr. Paul Mpwiyo's House.

In her objection, Kachale asked Kasambara to question Pika about distance and time takes one driving from Ufulu gardens to Paul Mpwhiyo residence and not from Kanengo because according to Kachale, Pika had used the route before, when going to Mphwiyo’s house.

This did not sound well with Kasambara who reacted by stating that the DPP was "insinuating" that Pika was present at the shooting and that with her assertions, she has brought no evidence to prove that Pika was present at the scene. He then angrily shouted that he could have slapped her for such remarks because were provocative.

"I find the third accused in contempt of court and I censure, not to repeat this kind of behavior from now onwards" ruled Justice Michael Mtambo immediately both sides had finished making impromptu oral submissions

Before the final ruling was made, Judge observed that this was second time Kasambara has made such remarks of this nature to DPP.

“The other time in Chambers I had asked Mr. Chibwana to sit between you and DPP. And this conduct in the face of court is disrespectful of the presence and the authority of the court. I therefore cite you of Contempt of Court.”

Kachale: I am speechless 

Immediately Kasambara uttered his aggressive words Kachale looked very shocked and she reacted by saying "I am speechless"

She told court that she felt the threat was “beyond bar” and was “stretching beyond the limit of decency." She then asked Judge to call for a break but got reply from Justice Mtambo that he could not allow a break if it is Contempt of court.

But Kasambara told court that he was simply saying if it happened outside the court that she made such remarks he would slap her but he cannot do that in court, then added “I meant you are lucky that you are in court”

Kachale reacted further to say “This is a form of violence and intimidation.” She said Kasambara was trying to intimidate her in the presence of the court and described his conduct as “blatant contempt.”

"This is a gender issue. I feel he would not have done that to male officer of court because they could have met and deal with each other outside” said Kachali who further mentioned that such remarks were also meant to demean her office because it is being headed by a female person.

Chibwana

State Counsel, Mr. Enoch Chibwana, when asked by court to speak on the matter, he said this incident was not first time for Kasambara as he had done it before in the chamber but the repetition of the same seem the accused has failed to learn lesson.

“The third accused is not an ordinary man in court. He is a senior counsel who must show exemplary behavour not only in this court… And allowing this type of behavior to be done at the court of this magnitude it leaves a lot of questions unanswered” he said adding that this was a right platform to provide a appropriate action

However, Kasambara apologized for his conduct and promised never again to allow such a thing to happen even if he is provoked.

“Am sincerely sorry, My Lord, these words did not mean to undermine the authority of the court… it was a vulgar statement made in the heat of the moment… I will try as much as possible even if provoked again”

Mphwiyo Shooting: Accused, Victim Still Friends As Pika Disclose Still In Contact

The attempted murder victim of September, 13, 2013, Mr. Paul Mphwiyo may still in constant contact with his three friends accused of his shooting.

This follows information from the second accused Mr. Pika Manondo during his cross examination with State that Mr. Paul Mphwiyo himself tipped him that State has prepared against him (Paul Mphwiyo) charged with an offense to do with Thuso, a South African Company which supplied equipment to Malawi Defense Force (MDF).

He disclosed this as he was denying presence at the shooting scene when Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Mary Kachale put to him that he must have been available at the shooting scene as testified by the victim.

When Manondo was replying to the question about his presence at the scene he asked the State why it continues to trust Paul Mphwiyo’s testimony about his presence at the shooting scene yet the same state does not trust the victim as they charged him with two counts which one of it includes lying to Malawi Revenue Authority and the fresh charge involving Thuso.

When the state asked him to inform the court where he heard the information about the new charge Manondo disclosed that it was from Paul Mphwiyo himself.

However, the state denied any new charges being prepared against Paul Mphwiyo  and subsequently withdrew the statement regarding anything said do with the new charge a development which Pika said it was unfortunate for the state to say they don't know anything about this.

State has finished with Cross-examination of Pika and now his fellow two accused, McDonald Kumwembe and Ralphael Kasambara will cross-examining him.

After that it will be the witnesses for Pika Manondo. But the third accused will not testify and there is no indication that he will call witnesses.

If it goes normally, then state and defense will submit whether a case has been made out beyond the reasonable doubt.

Director of Public Prosecution Mary Kachale during cross-examination asked several questions around the call logs.

The state said the constant communications Pika had with fellow accused during the period of Mphwiyo shooting was questionable as this was not the case before the period in question but Pika denied the assertion and said there have been several instances where he was in constant communication with his friends way back and he even challenged the State to produce call logs for more than 9 months and try to analyze their communication.

He also denied his presence at Paul Mphwiyo residence during the shooting by replying “Why would a person hire a gun man and be at the scene?”

He informed court that after getting a phone call of Paul Mphwiyo shooting, he stopped drinking at Chez-Mtemba, and went home to sleep as he was at that time more than tipsy and around 6 am he travelled to Dedza.

But the state put on him that he travelled to Dedza together with McDonald Kumwembe to drop him there after their mission was accomplished.

The call logs indicates that Pika travelled to Dedza from Area 47 in Lilongwe. In Dedza the cell sites of both McDonald Kumwembe and Pika indicates they were both at Dedza market. But Pika was in few minutes traced going back to Lilongwe and showed that he traveled nearly 15 minutes from Chimbiya to Lilongwe and went to the Hospital so see his friend Paul Mphwiyo.

On his speeding, when state asked him if he is a person who speed he responded “depending on circumstances yes”

Pika at several question that were put on him including on his presence at the scene, or if he hired a gun man to shoot Paul Mphwiyo said “There is no evidence” and the state “will not produce any evidence that I was assigned for any job to shoot"