Mozambique: Covid-19 funds used transparently, says Health Minister – Watch

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Mozambique: Covid-19 funds used transparently, says Health Minister – Watch

6:58 CAT | 12 Mar 2021

Photo: TVM

Mozambican Health Minister Armindo Tiago on Wednesday assured the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, that the funds allocated to his Ministry to fight the Covid-19 pandemic are handled within standards that seek high levels of transparency,

Answering questions from the parliamentary groups about the government’s handling of the pandemic, Tiago said “we are following the norms in force in the State apparatus. We publish all the tenders and every month we publish the reports of the Covid-19 funds. We also ensure the public reception of the goods channelled to the country”.

The Minister admitted “there has been a lot of questioning about the availability of personal protective equipment in the health units. So we decided to open our hospitals to other people. We asked the professional associations of the health sector to monitor the availability of this equipment for themselves”.

“This is happening and I can guarantee that the process is continually improving”, he said. “The use of funds is also open to independent auditing”.

Up to 31 January, Tiago said, 113.2 million dollars had been made available to the Health Ministry “but not necessarily disbursed”. Of this sum, 71.9 million dollars was in cash, and 41.3 million dollars was in kind.

Of the funds made available in cash, 28.98 million dollars were channelled to the Ministry of Health’s bank accounts, and the remaining amounts were managed through the mechanisms of the donors themselves (namely the World Bank and the Islamic Development Bank). He added that these donors have not yet supplied all the equipment that thei funds are intended to purchase.

The grant from the Islamic Development Bank, Tiago said, should be used to buy 50 ambulances, 225 articulated beds for Covid-19 isolation wards, test kits, personal protective equipment, communication and training equipment, among other items.

The money already received had been used to finance improvements to the Covid-19 centres, cash transfers to the provinces to deal with Covid-19 needs, customs clearance costs, and stocks of reagents needed for the laboratories.