CMST rolls out HIV, Aids workplace policy
Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST) on Saturday launched an HIV and Aids Workplace Policy to guide the institution in impact mitigation of HIV and Aids for the future.
Speaking during the launch at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe, CMST board chairperson Evelyn Itimu said the policy would help fight HIV and Aids in the workplace and would curb new infections within the trust.
She said: “This workplace policy will help prevent further HIV infections and it will promote positive living while encouraging supportive mechanism among the trust’s employees living with HIV and Aids.”
However, she said the challenge remained of translating the policy into action; hence, she appealed to the trust’s employees and corporate partners to support the initiative morally, materially and financially.
In his remarks, CMST chief executive officer Feston Kaupa said HIV and Aids challenges every workplace with such adverse effects as prolonged employee illnesses, absenteeism or loss of skills through death.
He said most of the challenges haunt an organisation’s productivity and workplace morale, especially in institutions where the response to such challenges has not been well planned.
through non-governmental organisations (NGOs), mostly international.
“The government cannot properly decide on expenditure priorities nor properly plan and time the delivery of goods and services in some critical areas. This development means that the government including Parliament does not have decision-making responsibility over an increasing amount of resources available to the public,” he said.
However, the donors have defended their contravention of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness which advocates for budgetary support systems arguing that the 2011 Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation focused on achieving results if the full use of country systems was not possible and as far as they are concerned, Cashgate made it impossible to use on- budget mechanisms.
The shooting of former Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo outside the gate of his Area 43 residence in Lilongwe on the night of September 13 2013 is widely believed to have led to revelations of the plunder of public resources at Capital Hill.
Former president Joyce Banda ordered an audit which British forensic audit firm Baker Tilly carried out covering the period April to September 2013. The audit established that about K24 billion was siphoned from public coffers through dubious payments, inflated invoices and claims for goods or services not rendered.
In May 2015, a financial analysis report by audit and business advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) also established that about K577 billion in public funds could not be reconciliated between 2009 and December 31 2014.
