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World Bank wants K135m back
By
Joseph Langa - 06-02-2003 |
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The World Bank has asked the Malawi government to pay back USD $1.5
million (about K135 million) which government has failed to account for in
various projects the bank supported.
According to Ministry of Finance officials some of the projects where money could not be accounted for include a primary education project of the Ministry of Education, population health and nutrition project of the Ministry of Health and civil works project under the environmental management.
Ministry of Agriculture chief technical advisor Ellard Malindi and senior Treasury official Tomaida Msiksa disclosed the bank’s demand in Lilongwe yesterday at the launch of a USD $50 million (K450 million) emergency drought recovery project.
The two officials told participants at the meeting that the bank is asking
for a refund because government failed to follow the bank’s procedures in
implementing the projects.
They said procurement officers for some of the projects supported by the
bank were not following the bank’s procedures as highlighted in the project
documents.
According to Msiska, part of the money is what government was supposed to
refund the World Bank as balances that were in special project accounts
after the closure of the projects.
Malindi said the problem also came because of lack of accountability and
the delay of auditors to look at the books of accounts, which he said has
forced government to involve auditors from the beginning of the projects to
avoid similar occurrences in future.
World Bank task manager for the emergency drought project Stanley Hiwa
said the major cause of the problem is “misprocurement” because of failure to
follow project guidelines. He said the money has to be repaid because the
bank has to utilise the funds on other projects.
Msiska appealed to the implementers of the ten World Bank projects that are
currently running in the country to make sure they follow the right procedures to avoid similar problems.
Malindi said since the money involved is very huge, repayment might mean deductions from allocations for the affected ministries.
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