Strides the Malawi has made over the years In the HIV/AIDS fight might go down the drain if the Ministry Of Health does not wake up from its slumber and act on the mismanagement at the department.

It is alleged that since the director of the HIVAIDS department Rose Nyirenda joined the department in 2018 things have not been going on well.

Nyirenda is being accused by her subordinates that she sidelines them on activities and opts to put internees in charge of critical jobs at the department including finance with an aim of siphoning money from the department for personal use.

It is further alleged that due to this the department has on several occasion lost money meant for fuel to abuse by the internees.

“For instance in December 2021 one of the internees she has put on the frontline and also believed to be the director’s relative abused money close to 400 Thousand Kwacha meant for fuel and when an audit query rose the director rushed to pay back the money saying the money was used for other activities. As if this is not enough the very same internee was also recently involved in another scandal.

“He has misappropriated fuel amounting to 2 million kwacha. And to cover up for his sins the director has cooked a story that the internee is having mental problems and ordered that he be removed from all office WhatsApp groups since she is afraid of being exposed.

“And surprisingly she has invited the same internee to a workshop of has training yet she said the internee is no longer with the department,” narrated a colleague of hers on strict condition of anonymity.

Further the colleague further alleged that Nyirenda is untouchable as she always finds a way to manipulate top officials in the ministry to ignore concerns.

“There was a time when she used to date politician Jappie Mhango when he was our minister and all our concerns fell on deaf years. This time around she has manipulated the current minister of health Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda as she has befriended her and has suddenly become a drinking partner for the minister. So the minister cannot act on her as well.” Added the source

“What worries us most is that since her time at the department she has issued transferred to hard working staff and replaced them with friends like the current Technical Director (TA). Not that transfers are wrong but you have to note that some of the people she transferred were key to the operations of the department in terms of ordering and procuring HIVAIDS supplies for the countries hospitals.

“As we are speaking we have stock-outs for DBS, DTG and other HIVAIDS supplies which are critical in fighting HIVAIDS like Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission PMTCT since the current TA is failing to do her job. Very soon people living with HIV/AIDS in our hospitals will start feeling the pinch because the supplies were last ordered by the transferred Technical Advisor,” said the source.

It is further alleged that Nyirenda is also in a habit of collecting double allowances for a single function and also has ghost people to signing for allowances.

“She blackmails partners like CHAI and EGPAF that if they refuse her allowances she will not be renewing their contract with the department,” Added the source.

Our efforts to reach out to Nyirenda for her side of the story proved futile as we could not get her on her phone when we went to press.

The post CASH GATE:  MoH Director of HIV/AIDS in Abuse of Funds appeared first on Malawi Voice.