Plumage of corruption and proselytity on the topic COVID-19

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of citizens in saving the globe from institutional and structural corruption. Follow the money, as a major Pan African Movement, is taking deliberate steps to assist African organizations in adopting its tracking approach and strategy in order to fulfill its accountability mandate.

The CTAP program allowed four FTM global sections to track the use of COVID 19 monies in their respective countries. Kenya, Malawi, Liberia, and Cameroon each received financing for CTAP in their respective countries for a 12-month period. BudgIT also aided three countries (Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone) Massive outcomes have been achieved since the commencement of these programs, demonstrating their scalability throughout additional African countries.

In Liberia, a study of the stimulus package for private school teachers conducted in Margibi County revealed that only 15% of private school teachers received their $1 million shares, while 85% of attendees did not obtain their shareholdings of the $1 million funds allocated for private school teachers in the 2020/2021 government budget. We lobbied for funding to be released to the correct people. We've also enlisted the help of stakeholders to guarantee that school instructors have easy access to these money.

As of December 2020, the Kenyan government had collected Kshs 214 billion ($ 2,332,600 million) in loans for COVID-19-related expenses, with Kshs 162 billion ($ 1,765,800 million) going to county governments' Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). Despite the immediacy and necessities caused by the pandemic's impact on individuals, there was underdevelopment of monies from the funds allotted to County Governments.

Improved participation by government officials– During the monitoring stage of the Kenya CTAP effort, government officials from numerous county governments were significant informants. Chief officers of Health and Water-Sanitation, who are in charge of sanctioning the spending of accounting method, and members of the County Executive Committee-Health, who are the equal of Ministers at the county level, were among them. The aforementioned took part in a video interview in which they discussed the Covid-19 outbreak in their respective counties, the gaps that were discovered, and mitigation efforts for the outbreak, which was compiled into a feature documentary by the FTM Kenya team at SIDAREC.

Creating a Coalition Value Co - creation – World Bank Kenya (TI-K), Shining Optimism For Societies (Shofco), Kelin Kenya, Comprehensive Economic Partnering Kenya (IBP-K), Uraia Trust, Department of Public Financial services Kenya (IPF-K), and Affiliation of Grassroots Reporters Kenya attended the first CTAP building consensus meeting in April 2021. (AGJK). Hivos, Development Gateway, Mzalendo, and COVID-Kenya are now part of the initiative. The strategy paper includes a SWOT analysis, a communication/advocacy strategy, a coalition resourcing strategy, predicted outcome/impact, and the Coalition members' roles and duties. The paper served as a road map for collaborative advocacy activities at the sub-national and national levels to improve openness and accountability in government budgeting and procurement procedures, as well as access to information around COVID-19

Cameroon is a country in Africa. In a letter dated March 29, 2021, the Head of State, through the Staffer at the Presidency, directed the Minister of Justice to launch an immediate judicial investigation into the alleged misappropriation of COVID 19 money. While waiting for the outcome of this internal government probe, ADE/CTAP issued press statements praising the government for speeding up the process of auditing public administrations for COVID funding.

The Presidency of Cameroon, Paul Biya, requested an audit on the use of money for the battle against the Coronavirus pandemic as a result of our tireless campaigning on CTAP, at a time when consistent intelligence indicated "severe" financial misappropriation. He ordered the Secretary-General, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, to provide FCFA 32,555,000 to meet the audit fees for the Way Ahead Control (CONSUPE) assignment at the Ministry of Health.

After the launch of CTAP in Cameroon on July 29, 2020, the Department of Health, citing "the immediate need for clarity," issued a two-page leaked document summarizing how it expended FCFA 21,973,799,873 billion ($40,556,387.318 million) in response to COVID-19 from March to July 2020, trying to claim that this was its overall expenditure in reply to COVID-19 from March to July 2020. Despite its lack of specifics, this news release served as a starting point for additional inquiries into the COVID money' use in Cameroon.

CTAP Malawi published a report on how COVID monies were utilized in Malawi, exposing how various government officials mismanaged COVID-19 funds. Dr. Lazarus Chakwera, Malawi's president, sacked the Ministry of Labour and detained 19 officials involved in the misappropriation of Covid 19 monies shortly after the report was released. This was a triumph for CTAP in Malawi since nothing was taken till the CTAP report was made public after the internal audit on the COVID monies was released, exposing the mishandling of the funds.

We intend to upskill community organizations and increase coalition effective implementation in the second phase, with a focus on deepening discussions and involvement with governments on broader health industry accountability and transparent COVID 19 grant utilization across more African countries.