Covid-19 World Bank Funds Utilisation Monitoring Report

Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) is undertaking interventions that seek to enhance transparency, accountability and citizen’s participation in the COVID-19 response in Zambia. This work is supported by the World Bank and Transparency International (TI) Secretariat in Germany. In an effort to enhance citizen’s participation in the pandemic response, TI-Z facilitated citizens’ monitoring of World Bank funds disbursed by the Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI) to designated provinces and districts.
Thus, the scope of this monitoring report is restricted to the monitoring of the World Bank funds disbursement of K4.07 million that were disbursed to seven provincial health offices and 80 district health offices across the country. These funds and expenditures were tracked and monitored by district monitoring teams covering a sample of 13 districts and seven provincial capitals. The monitoring and tracking of funds was conducted from April to May 2022 and revealed that some districts and provinces monitored had not received the funds. Further, for the district and provinces that had received funds, some health offices had not yet utilised the funds.
Moreover, in conducting the monitoring exercise, district teams encountered challenges pertaining to the unavailability of personnel to provide the requisite information. This was due to a number of reasons including the transfer of personnel and the demands of the health profession, which limited access to the personnel who could provide the required information. Nonetheless, most district monitoring teams managed to get buy-in from provincial health and district health duty bearers in conducting the monitoring exercise.