By Wezzie Gausi:
The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (Pac) has summoned the Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Colleen Zamba to appear before it to provide answers to issues that have been pending regarding audit reports and others.
In an interview, Pac Chairperson Mark Botomani said the committee would like mainly to know the action taken by the government so far regarding the outstanding K17.2 billion Covid-19 audit report.
The report revealed that money for Covid response was misused by government agencies through dubious payments of allowances, suspicious procurements, wrong-accounting, among others. amounting to K17. 2 billion meant
The meeting between the parliamentary committee and Zamba was expected to take place last week but had to be rescheduled because of the death of vice president Saulos Chilima, who died in a plane crash on June 10 in Chikangawa Forest.
According to Botomani, Pac will meet Zamba after the 21 days of national mourning which the government set are over.
He said, apart from the alleged abuse of Covid funds, the committee would want the SPC to explain why some important government positions are not being filled despite falling vacant for some time.
The country currently does not have its chief immigration officer and Anti-Corruption Bureau director general after the two bodies’ heads, Charles Kalumo and Martha Chizuma, respectively, left office.
“Apart from that, there are many positions in the government that have not been filled for a long time. As the SPC, we would like her to explain why such positions are not filled and what is her office doing about it.
“We have been meeting with different stakeholders and many issues came out and many issues are pointing to the office of the SPC. We also want her to explain the measures that have been put in place in order to control unnecessary expenditure amidst the economic challenges,” Botomani said.
In response, spokesperson in the Office of President and Cabinet Robert Kalindiza assured that the SPC would appear in Parliament
He said Zamba has always and will always be meeting Pac when issues arise.
“During the last meeting, there were a number of outstanding issues that needed to be addressed as soon as possible. The meeting to conclude all these issues was arranged but due to the tragedy that the country had, it was impossible to continue with those meetings while the country is mourning.
“When all is set, the meeting will take place and all these matters will be discussed and concluded,” Kalindiza said.
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