PARLIAMENT OF MALAWI LIVE SESSION WITH TIMES GROUP, NATION & PIJ| SKEFFA CHIMOTO WATOKOTA IZI

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:13]I must apologize good people. So I said maybe we can do the investigation but be able to assure you that we are talking about a health personnel and not necessarily impersonators.

[00:00:25]Because the hospitals have been infiltrated in the urban areas by the management.

[00:00:29]Finally, I wanted to also agree with whoever spoken is it in Chewa or is it Chitepa?

[00:00:37]That we needed these cartels to be put out there.

[00:00:43]Because if this a cartel just reporting like that without naming them people still be victimized in future. Even now as we are talking people are being victimized because the cartels are still there.

[00:00:57]So to manage the matter we need to name and shame. These cartels should be caught so that we clear our hospitals. Thank you chair.

[00:01:06]Thank you very much the people of Zomba City South. So during your presentation the consortium members you had indicated that backlog of these cases might have uh motivated the corrupt practices at the health facilities. Did you find out what uh made these backlog um uh cases.

[00:01:31]And then you should also appreciate the fact that some of the uh health facilities that you targeted have uh paying and non-paying wings.

[00:01:41]Which ones did you target? Did you differentiate?

[00:01:46]Right. Thank you very much. For now you can take those questions.

[00:01:50]Uh thank you so much chairperson and uh committee members for the questions that you have given us. I will start and my colleagues would also come in at any point. Uh the first question came from Manguji West, uh whether we spoke to hospital management. As a standard journalistic practice, after every investigation, uh we confront uh those that we are going to report on.

[00:02:16]So, if you're going to report on a hospital, for example, KCH, uh the confrontation will involve interviewing the leadership of KCH. So, for every major hospital that we reported on, uh we spoke to the leadership of of the hospital. And we indicated to them that these are the findings.

[00:02:33]Uh can you tell us what you know about what is going on at your hospital? What are you doing to to stop this uh this practice and so forth? So, we did at that level. Then, we also spoke to the Minister of Health. We indicated to them that these are the findings before we publish. We'd like to hear what is the Ministry doing uh to ensure that this stops. Uh what measures have you put in place? And what are you going to do now that we have given you these findings before we publish? So, that when we are publishing the story publishing the story, we should also be able to say these are the findings, but the Minister of Health says he's going to uh to do so and such and such to to to avoid uh this continuing happening. So, we did engage with the Ministry, and they uh directors of the hospitals uh at that level uh before the story was published.

[00:03:25]And they after the story was published, there was a lot of engagement again, uh unofficial in the engagement with the uh the PSs PSs for the Ministry. Uh at some point the the Minister as well, but also officials from State House prior to the president's executive order. Uh they were interested to find out what what process did we go through uh to to to to come up with the findings? And just to get uh other details as the committee is is is uh is also asking. So, there was that kind of engagement sharing of information in terms of what are the what are the what are happening.

[00:04:02]Uh in terms of engaging law enforcement We are good public public citizens, but we you have to also ensure that we remain journalists. Uh we our job is to bring these things to uh account to public attention.

[00:04:20]Uh but it's not our job to uh report people to law enforcement. But if you know enforcement or any organ of the state decides that they should invite us to engage us on these public issues, we will not shy away from that responsibility because we are citizens.

[00:04:38]Uh we have to be able to help our country the same way we have appeared before the committee. If ACB decided that they wanted to get more on this issue, uh they could have uh engaged us as well. As the CJ, we invited uh the director general of ACB uh to one of our our meetings shortly after the publication of this story.

[00:05:01]Unfortunately, I think because of miscommunication, uh he had indicated that he was going to appear, uh but later he wasn't able to appear.

[00:05:10]And unfortunately, that also coincided with the uh the collapse of our funding. So, we are not able to reschedule uh the meeting subsequently. But it was It was our wish that we well, we could not report as a complainant, we should be able to present the findings for the ACB to be able to take uh action. So, or to be able at least to acknowledge to know that this has uh this is the findings of the investigation. But we know uh one of members that ACB now is able to generate uh complaints based on what has been published in by the media. Uh apart from just receiving complaints from whistleblowers or complainants officially going to ACB, ACB's internal mechanisms allow them nowadays to obtain any information that is public domain and internally generate a complaint. So, it's our hope uh and prayer that ACB generated the a complaint uh internally and they are looking into this matter. But, we have we are we are not aware at the moment uh whether they were able to do so or not.

[00:06:16]But, we uh again, I think just like other suggestions that have been made by the committee, I think we are duty-bound to follow up uh on whether ACB in particular uh did generate an uh uh a complaint internally and they are investigating this matter. Uh and that takes me to the other questions which we uh we are asked by colleagues, "What have you done to monitor the situation?"

[00:06:40]Uh subsequent to the publication of this story, I think I didn't take pictures of this newspaper article as but there have been a number of articles. We have been told to follow up any action that has been taken by any authority or institution around this issue. We try to make sure that we publicize it. Even this appearance, we'll try to publicize it because we want to continuously keep everybody remembering that this is an important issue. And we we we follow up with the ministry previously and we'll continue to follow up with the ministry and the authorities to ensure that there's uh action being taken. subsequently, I'm sure uh we normally don't talk about future investigations to avoid jeopardizing them, but I'm I'm sure this is one area where we can possibly go back and uh and investigate whether uh after what what we reported, if things have changed on the ground. Yeah.

[00:07:33]Uh Yeah, maybe you can come in and have other questions or All right. Uh in terms of So, we haven't deployed teams on the ground, but from periodically we'll be able to uh to go and and revisit the subject. Uh in terms of impersonation uh impersonators at the various facilities. I'm glad you uh honorable you have mentioned and the also happy that to know that in the committee you are one of the heavy personnels that have a lot of experience working in the heavy services. And again I need to agree with you uh the impersonators at the various hospitals.

[00:08:14]But for this investigation, we focused on the heavy personnel that we could identify that these are indeed public service officers and they are not impersonators who are just trying to scam innocent innocent Malawians.

[00:08:33]Uh in terms of satisfactory with the impact, I think that was the question raised by Ngingi Wastes. Whether we are satisfied with the impact of the investigation. Uh I should say that we are generally satisfied with the fact that there has been a lot of interest in the investigation. We are satisfied with the fact that there have been those two consequential orders. It shows that government is moving. But there several areas that need to be addressed and that cannot be addressed in one day or two.

[00:09:04]So, our hope is that every institution that said we are going to investigate is indeed going to investigate the matter and come up with come up with recommendations or actions that will then shift the situation on the ground.

[00:09:20]Until that is done, we can't consider ourselves uh we can't consider that our job is done as journalists.

[00:09:30]Uh or we can't consider that the story has been impactful enough because then the could just becomes cosmetic if we publish a story, people make statements, uh we make appearances like this one, and then everybody goes home and say, "Okay, that story was the impactful."

[00:09:48]But what will be impactful for us and that what will ultimately uh satisfy us is when we see that if we do another investigation in a couple of months' time, we don't find any hospital where patients are being told that they can pay bribes or uh bribes are being demanded or patients are being diverted from public hospitals to pri- public private hospitals. So, it's the actual change on the ground that will ultimately be the uh the impact of the story. So, we that's what we are hoping for and we hope not only we just as journalists, but we all stakeholders working together, we can be able to bring that to to to fold.

[00:10:32]Yeah, I think Those are the questions that I noted and uh Those are Thank you very much. There was a question here. Um Like I said, you had indicated that uh the corruption might have been influenced by the backlog of cases.

[00:10:50]Uh another example that I can give you is micro facial surgeons in Malawi. Uh we only have one.

[00:10:57]And currently we have close to 300 cases of those who want to do undergo the micro facial surgery. And then that scenario can motivate or can influence um uh corruption because everyone want to uh get uh to the first front um first slot of the queue. Do you think this could be one of the reasons that uh might have influenced um uh the corruption? And uh what should we do in your opinion? What should we do as a country to address some of these issues?

[00:11:31]So, I'll I'll invite my colleague Edith to respond. But before maybe she comes in, she's giving me I go ahead to continue responding. But I would say that I I agree that the There are a number of factors that contribute to corruption in the health sector. And number one is one we have a huge population now against the a very small pool of health facilities. So, the population boom is a major contributor factor to the situation. Where we have put a lot of strain on very few health personnel to to treat our patients. I think our honorable member who is coming from uh from the health background would talk about the patient doctor relation in the country is one of the most alarming rates in the country.

[00:12:30]So, that's one factor.

[00:12:32]The second factor is that generally the public service and that includes the health service. People are underpaid.

[00:12:41]In other public service stations, people are able to go for trainings, allowances for sorry, workshops that constantly help them to be able to get additional allowances. There are parts There are There are personnel There is a personnel in the health service that do get allowances like local Those are able to again to be able to sustain their living. But there are others as well who do not have such kind of uh conditions of services that support them. So, that again fuels corruption.

[00:13:21]Additionally, in one particular case like the lions department, there's a spike in terms of accidents in the city and Lake Bazaar related accidents in particular have also made the backlog of cases in that facility for example very very long. So again for people to jump a queue because of this because of the backlog they are forced to to to pay bribes. But the most important factor beyond everything else is that as a country we are facing a cancer of corruption and that does not have one sector that has been left untouched. So that's a general lapse of morals in the country that is leading to this apart from conditions of service and the other factors that has mentioned.

[00:14:11]>> Thank you very much. So you have mentioned the issues of population boom and the issues of HRH human resources for health being inadequate being not enough to serve the growing rapid growing population.

[00:14:26]What recommendation therefore are you putting forward to this committee? I recognize some of the recommendations that you have brought to this committee but having this in mind looking at the doctor patient ratio which is the most lowest in this part of Sadiq region.

[00:14:46]The dwindling resources going towards uh health sector now with the withdrawal of funding and the growing rapid growing population.

[00:14:58]I haven't seen the recommendation to that effect. What are you telling this committee?

[00:15:03]Okay quickly chairperson honorable chairperson and again I would refer to my colleague for this question because she had already prepared a set of recommendations but I think the most immediate recommendation to the committee because of the oversight work would be to ensure that the allocations to the heavy sector reviewed and adjusted appropriately.

[00:15:26]Some of the issues are to do with personnel inadequacy and they also conditions of services. So as committee you play a very critical role when it comes to the that kind of allocation. Secondly as again to the committee specifically would be to ensure that the committee is regularly monitoring the heavy facilities. Particularly the committee should be focusing on the the viability and the the viability of the the of the safeguards that we have put in place. The ombudsman, the internal controls and ensure that those guardrails are working to protect ordinary Malawians.

[00:16:14]Additionally we should also strengthen controlling officers roles. The PSs because most of these things do sometimes end up reported to officers. But if controlling officers are not able to do their work, we'll keep changing the law, we'll keep changing the budgets. But someone has to do their job and ensure that their teams are adhering to the law because the public service charter already has a lot of uh provisions that are supposed to ensure that people are are doing their work within the the framework but nobody is enforcing those mechanisms and we need to ensure that controlling officers are doing their job to enforce the the the law.

[00:16:56]Thank you very much and then there was a question that you never tackled. A question of from I think among which west where he had wanted to you to clarify why did you leave out the heavy centers?

[00:17:13]And just to add on um how did you sample these health facilities? So, I can see there's Likoma, there's Chiradzulu.

[00:17:22]What sampling mechanisms or what motivated the consortium members to sample these health facilities?

[00:17:30]Thank you very much, but before you can just take note of these questions, we have uh um, Mwanza West.

[00:17:36]Then we go to Nkhotakota and Nkula. From Nkhotakota and Nkula, we go to Chew Central East.

[00:17:44]Again, um, then we go to Nzimba Reggae's before we hit the wise people of Ncheu North.

[00:17:54]In that order, please.

[00:17:57]Thank you so much, Chair.

[00:17:59]I just wanted to appreciate after you reported the matter to the management of the health facilities, how many people were brought to action because uh the the longer we take, the more lives we are losing.

[00:18:18]And uh you've said in your presentation that uh corruption is a system.

[00:18:25]Uh these people being reported to their uh disciplinary bodies by the management, like the Nurses Council, the the Medical Council, and uh do you perhaps think that uh because you've said it's a system, the management might be uh trying to protect these individuals and in your investigation, uh what cadres did you find uh to be more corrupt or more vulnerable of corruption in health base can we present this because as uh as a team, you you're you're doing a good job and this is your committee as the chair has already said. Where do you think uh these matters are stuck so that we can best help you as a committee so that these people should be brought to to justice so that there's equity and justice in our country. Thank you. So, how many cutters were disciplined and which which of these cutters were taken to action? I'm not quite sure if you'll be able to tackle that one because again, that is not your scope of work. We go to Mkhotakota Mkhula.

[00:19:39]Thank you, chair, for granting the people of Mkhotakota Mkhula to to say a word or two.

[00:19:49]First of all, allow me to congratulate the the consortium. You guys look youthful.

[00:19:55]And that hunger for patriotism is highly recommended. Commended. Thank you so very much. We So, we are happy to have people like you in Malawi now.

[00:20:09]My first question is your about your emotional readiness.

[00:20:14]Because corruption always refuses to die.

[00:20:18]I'm sure if you haven't yet started receiving threats, but soon you will start receiving them.

[00:20:25]How ready are you? Are we not seeing this consortium dying a natural death after two or three threats?

[00:20:35]Number two, this might be a benefit of coming in late.

[00:20:39]In case I ask a question that has already been clarified.

[00:20:44]I wanted to know the criteria that you follow in choosing who is going to be the member of the the consortium from from the media houses.

[00:20:54]And on the same, I don't I want to know how how democratic your organization is.

[00:21:00]Is it something that will be changing leadership every year or Is it Is it political?

[00:21:09]Who do you choose to be to be to be on board?

[00:21:13]Thank you so much. I submit you.

[00:21:14]>> Thank you very much. Did you receive threats? How emotionally are you ready to manage the threats that will be coming up along your way and then the consortium members.

[00:21:30]Is it democratically instituted organization or just handpicking?

[00:21:38]We go to Nsimbirekezi.

[00:21:44]Thank you, chair.

[00:21:49]Can you provide comparative data?

[00:21:54]Can you please provide the comparative data showing the average waiting time for for patients who paid bribes versus those who refused to pay the bribes.

[00:22:06]Thank you.

[00:22:08]Thank you, Nsimbirekezi, for that wonderful question. We go to the people of Chewo Central East.

[00:22:19]Thank you, chair, for recognizing the people of Chewo Central East. Mine is a comment on the corruption especially at the orthopedic center at Lions at KCH.

[00:22:34]In fact, we have specialists there.

[00:22:38]Just for your information, the specialists are not the ones who are doing the corruption. There are middlemen there.

[00:22:46]Middlemen, you may wonder where are these middlemen coming from? Middlemen are the paramedics which are working together with the specialists. So, these are the ones who are doing rampant corruption at Cancer to Hospital at Lions. And indeed, this is true. and it is really happening and it is nicknamed Mazim.

[00:23:10]These people they're the ones who are they're the ones who do enlist the theater list.

[00:23:17]They enlist the theater list to be done surgery by the specialist because the specialist they don't go direct to the patients but these paramedicals who work together with the specialist that they indeed be the ones who are doing this.

[00:23:32]And I've got evidence. If you can find me I can give you the evidence.

[00:23:38]12,000 was spent for a patient who was in the hospital for 1 month but when he paid the 12,000 next day he was operated.

[00:23:48]Thank you.

[00:23:50]Thank you very much. I think that was more of a tip.

[00:23:54]Uh members of the consortium members consortium uh I think you have a lot of work to do.

[00:24:02]Uh and shall we Central East is giving you a lot of tips to work on.

[00:24:09]Lower West Uh thank you chair for recognizing the people of Lower West.

[00:24:19]Mine is a concern about corruption.

[00:24:24]Let us look those who are coming from rural areas.

[00:24:28]They transferred from their health centers without anything in their hands.

[00:24:34]So if we allow that type of behavior that means it hinders much to those who are needy ones.

[00:24:43]What's your way forward to help those ones?

[00:24:47]Thank you chair.

[00:24:49]Thank you very much consortium members.

[00:24:51]Those are the questions some are the tips.

[00:24:54]Uh take them on board.

[00:24:56]Uh over to you.

[00:24:58]Uh thank you so much, chairperson, and thanks so much, uh, members of the committee for the, uh, specific questions.

[00:25:04]Uh, the first question, uh, what motivated the selection of a uh, hospitals that we focused on.

[00:25:13]Uh, number one, I think it was to do with proximity. We wanted to, uh, to manage the few resources that we had, so we we had to, uh, identify hospitals that were closer to us. So, I think that's the, uh, one reason why we chose, uh, the central hospitals, uh, and also the district hospitals that we referred to. Secondly, it was also to do with the the capacity of the, uh, health facilities. Uh, KCH, Queen's, uh, Zomba Central have uh, big capacity. So, they support minimal allowance. So, if, in order for us to to tell the impact of corruption in the health sector, we had to look at which facilities uh, interacting, interfacing with more allowance on a daily basis. So, that, uh, informed our decision to focus on the central hospitals and the district hospitals. But, we also wanted to be, uh, as reflective of the society as possible. So, we had to at least choose a few districts outside the main centers, uh, of uh, of the cities, uh, to see also how what is happening. That's why we selected Likoma, where we knew that, uh, there isn't much focus on it. It's a very remote place, and we can be able to say if these things are happening at the, uh, Likoma District Hospital and happening at the, uh, Queen's, uh, then they're happening across the country. So, that was uh, part of the, uh, the decision-making uh, when it comes to selection of the hospital, but importantly, it was about resources.

[00:26:55]Uh, we only have we only had limited resources, so we had to uh, to be creative and uh, and trying to to sample uh, a few hospitals that we could have been able to afford uh, with our with a with a team that we had.

[00:27:10]Uh, how many people we are have been brought to action so far? We don't know. Uh, one of the members we have one of the members who have to call officially. We don't know at this stage uh, how many people have been uh, disciplined because of the story that the story that we covered. And we hope hopefully we'll be able to follow up and find out what have how many people were uh, disciplined uh, based on the story.

[00:27:37]How many people have been How have been people being re- How have people being reported to the medical council?

[00:27:47]Uh, we are not aware again if people have been reported to the medical council directly based on this story, but we are aware that the uh, the medical council has disciplined several heavy officers subsequent to this investigation.

[00:28:01]Uh, but we don't know the origins of uh, those dis- disciplinary actions.

[00:28:07]Uh, we might make an assumption here that it was because of the story, but I think we need to critically investigate, find out from the medical council find out what were uh, the reasons why uh, those people were uh, were disciplined, but they are for a variety of cases. Some are related to to these issues, some to either cases like abuse of physical abuse of patients.

[00:28:30]Uh, so others about drug thefts, so we shouldn't make assumptions, but we can find out uh, if anyone was disciplined or sanctioned based on the findings of the investigations.

[00:28:42]Uh, honorable representative from Karonga Gola, I thank you very much for your uh, kind statements about the work that we are doing. We appreciate that.

[00:28:53]In terms of your question in terms of our readiness to do investigative work, I want to remember you may think we are young, but we have been around in terms of journalism.

[00:29:04]I have practiced as an investigative journalist for the past maybe 8 years. I have worked as a journalist in Malawi for 18 years.

[00:29:13]So, yes, we we we we are relatively young, but I think we are we we are very determined to do the job that we do and we we are very passionate about this work. I have I have only known journalism as my work, so we this is a job that we do with a passion. So, thanks so much for the kind words, but we are really we are geared as the media houses as the members of the CJA to do to do to to do this particular work.

[00:29:43]Just again, a reminder that the consortium is made up of different news organizations. Some of the organizations, for example, like Nation has been in existence now for 25 30 years. Yeah, so you find that within Nation Publications Limited, there are editors who have worked at Nation doing all that period from the beginning up to now. So, they have accumulated a lot of experience in covering investigations. There are editors who covered the Mwanza murder investigation, who broke that story, up to now are still practicing journalism.

[00:30:19]So, we draw inspiration, but also expertise and experience from those who are who have practiced for a long time to also lead us along the way.

[00:30:28]So, we are determined to to do this work. At BIJ, for example, we are we are solely invested in investigative journalism. That's we we don't do any sort of reporting. We don't come to Parliament to report on the budget. We are only in doing investigations. So, we are very determined to do to do investigations. So, yes, we are we are emotionally ready. We have been training this to do investigations. And uh I just to add honorable minister to utilize honorable chairperson rather to utilize this this committee's hearing.

[00:31:02]The investigative journalism is not something that we do lightly.

[00:31:07]Uh it has consequences.

[00:31:09]It has consequences not only investigative journalism, but also the people we report on.

[00:31:15]Uh it's a very important undertaking.

[00:31:19]We need to help the country, but we shouldn't use it again as just to persecute people. So, when as trained investigative journalists, we know we have platforms. We have we know we have power to make or break people, but we also are aware of our responsibilities. So, when we are doing this job as professionals, one of the things that we may we are mindful of that we are not doing anything out of malice.

[00:31:41]So, the committee and the house can be assured that as investigative journalists, we are very we are professional enough to recognize that we do this job to support our democracy and our nation building, but not just to bring down people. I think that's very important because with the rise of social media, there is there is sometimes unrealistic expectations on the press and the journalism.

[00:32:06]Our job is not just to name and shame people without evidence. We should name and shame people when we have evidence.

[00:32:12]I think there's tremendous desire and hunger for Malawians to know the truth about corruption, but that should be done in a systematic way. And that should be done with evidence. And that's very crucial for for our democracy.

[00:32:26]Yeah. I think I wanted to make to make that addition because I know people have a lot of expectations on journalism, but it's not just our job to present information that everybody has given us.

[00:32:38]Our job is to investigate, make sure that the only information that we are bringing to the public is investigation is information that we can be able to defend in a court of law. So, that's the job that we have. So, sometimes we will know things, but we will not be able to publish, but sometimes we will publish things when we have enough information. And that but that's the commitment that we do make that we we are going to look into everything.

[00:33:04]Yeah. Thank you very much, Times Group.

[00:33:07]Yeah, I just wanted to comment what Golden has said about the criteria we used to be become investigative journalists in Malawi.

[00:33:21]It's not that everyone can become an investigative journalist. It's a passion. And somebody has to have that passion. And we are not here investigators just because we want to, but we have chosen this path to bring change in the country. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, NPR.

[00:33:45]Yeah, I think I I just wanted to weigh in on the issue of what disciplinary measures have been taken for the people that may have been found to to be in the wrong. I think this is one of the issues that this report highlighted. If you read the story that was published, you will see that when we spoke to the ministry, we spoke to the to the principal secretary.

[00:34:12]He acknowledged being aware of the problem.

[00:34:16]And I think he he blamed it on professional ethics of the people involved. We spoke to the office of the ombudsman. She said just in the year 2025 over 16,000 cases were recorded with our office. And we also spoke to some uh health rights authorities Malawi Health Equity Network. All of these people you will see the common thread is that they are aware of this problem. So maybe the question is why is nothing being done? If you're talking of a PS that's a high level office in in the ministry. They they are aware of this problem but they're not doing it. So I think just to agree with what he said the committee now has to step in and provide oversight. One of the concerns that came out where that um um the the the patients appeared to be reluctant to report the the problems because of fear of retaliation. And also most of these are community members that will have to go back to the same health facility if they were to get sick again.

[00:35:24]And if they report their health official for being corrupt it means they may not get the support. But uh we do know that the hospital ombudsman facility is there but it's not being utilized or it's not being effective. So why is it not being effective? Hence the need for oversight.

[00:35:41]So I think there's a big role for the committee to to to come in and I think it's very encouraging that you've taken this issue up seriously to start this inquiry. And I think uh given the sentiments that have come from the uh panel it's also important that you work along with the media. I think you can start with the consortium itself which has experience and it has broken this story and um I see how far we can go together to expose further the other underlying issues that are continuing to happen but also to ensure that this matter comes to a close. Thank you.

[00:36:23]Thank you very much. Another final set of question if we have.

[00:36:31]The people of the wise people of Winchawa North.

[00:36:35]No question?

[00:36:36]Right. Do you have more questions?

[00:36:40]Right. And Zimbambwe Lekesi? Mine has not been touched yet.

[00:36:44]Oh, yeah.

[00:36:47]The one on the waiting. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean I can give an example of the experience um uh that some of the reporters had at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. So, it so happened that the one of the undercover journalists that that that did the story from the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital was there for about 3 days.

[00:37:10]And uh within those uh days, he was able to see um there was a specific case of a woman who had come in for a tooth extraction, and she wasn't able to get it done because her blood pressure was up.

[00:37:24]And uh so, she was sent to go and have um her blood pressure attended to, and she waited for 2 days because she couldn't bribe anyone. And some one of the people that were on the queue uh was able to pay 10,000 and immediately got access to to to support from the health workers. And she was desperate to get uh assisted, but she didn't have anything. She had been referred from Lunzu to Queens. And you you can imagine she she spent on transport. She was in deep pain with a toothache, but she didn't have anything. So, um I think we also indicated in the story that the reporter had to help with the 10,000 kwacha that was being demanded. And the moment that she paid that amount, she was able to get access uh to treatment immediately. So, if it's it's it's such uh sharp immediate to 2 3 days waiting because as paid anything.

[00:38:22]Thank you.

[00:38:23]Thank you very much. If there are no more questions, observations, and comments, may I humbly the constituent member uh to give us your concluding remarks.

[00:38:39]Uh thank you so much, chairperson.

[00:38:41]Uh Let me once again uh thank uh thank this committee uh for inviting us to avail ourselves to this session. We appreciate uh appreciate the interest that the committee has taken in uh the week that we published, and we have taken note of all the suggestions, uh the tips that we have received from uh honorable members uh this morning. We look forward to uh working with the committee and availing ourselves uh for any uh information that you may want.

[00:39:12]Uh as I earlier endeavored, we'll provide the evidence that we have secured uh to this committee, and we look forward to the recommendations of the committee uh uh subsequently. I think there was one question that we skipped uh from honorable honorable member asked whether this committee is a political organization or this consortium is a political organization or or what is the criteria for the selection of its members.

[00:39:38]Uh this is an nonpartisan organization.

[00:39:40]We are not registered formally as an organization. Uh we started as a project as part of the uh support to the law enforcement agencies under the DISOP project uh by the British uh High Commission.

[00:39:52]Uh we uh members from various media organizations, standard uh organizations, uh Nation, Times, and others, Zodiac, but we've decided to work together uh because of uh the desire to support this country.

[00:40:07]So, we would do work closely, but we'll be working together from time to time.

[00:40:11]So, we we are not We do not have any political political agenda uh per se. We are just interested in supporting uh Malawi and we look forward to engaging the committee in the future. Thank you so much, honorable member.

[00:40:24]Thank you very much, uh the consortium members, and thank you very much, honorable members, for the questions, uh comments, and observations. I would like, on behalf of the committee, sincerely uh thank you for availing yourself before this committee. This And we have a lot of work that we need to undertake as a committee. And uh just like you said, we do uh we need to collaborate because some of the projects that we need to do uh need uh co- collaboration, especially uh with you as consortium members, but of course, as also um uh individual media organizations. Thank you very much again for the recommendations. As a committee, we are taking this forward. And uh where possible, we'll be also engaging you uh on the same matters just to strengthen the report that we'll be uh producing. Thank you very much. And uh we would like to have the evidence um as soon as possible so that when we are compiling our report, uh that should also be part of the report. Thank you very much. May God bless you.

[00:41:46]I'm very aware of anything in the brain.

[00:41:48]Thank you very much.