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Highly publicised COVID-19 fund: More than 1.6bn still not used
The ‘Itukama’ COVID-19 Fund, launched amidst much fanfare in March last year and administered by the Presidential Secretariat, still has more than Rs. 1.6 billion sitting unused in its account, a Right to Information (RTI) request filed by the Sunday Times has revealed.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa established the Itukama COVID-19 Healthcare and Social Security Fund on March 23 last year and the first donation was made on that date. The Presidential Secretariat’s response to the RTI request says more than Rs. 1.8bn had been credited to the fund as at September 21, 2021.
A little more than Rs. 189 million had been utilised up to September 21 this year, the data show.
The Sunday Times also asked for a detailed breakdown of the disbursed funds. Information released under the RTI request says Rs. 42.6mn was spent on PCR testing while Rs. 67.5mn was the expenditure for an “advocacy programme”. Another Rs. 38mn is listed as expenditure for transport facilities provided to take people to quarantine centres.
The Sunday Times asked for a breakdown regarding how the Rs. 67.5mn from the Fund was used for awareness campaigns. The President’s Office said it did not have the information as the advocacy programme “was totally implemented by the Ministry of Health”.
The fund has released only Rs. 41.5mn for the national vaccination programme. However, on May 10 this year the President’s Media Division (PMD) issued a statement saying it had decided to use the balance of the Itukama COVID-19 Fund for the vaccination drive.
The balance was a quite small amount compared to the amount the government was expected to spend on vaccinations, the PMD statement said at the time. “However, the Management Board of the Fund has pointed out the importance of using the Fund’s balance for vaccination.”
The same statement said Rs. 194mn from the Fund will go towards 10 ambulances. In its response to the RTI request, however, the Presidential Secretariat said no money went towards ambulance purchases.
Despite the markedly low disbursement of the funds, the official Itukama website still publicises lofty goals for the donated money. These include meeting expenditures incurred by the Director-General of Health Services in the management of COVID-19, healthcare facilities, drugs, testing equipment and capacity building. These also include facilitation of the health and safety of health sector employees and logistics providers working to provide essential public delivery services during the ongoing pandemic; and provision of basic essentials to identified vulnerable groups such as children, women, low-income earners, the elderly and differently-abled.
The Fund was also aimed at strengthening public healthcare systems and reducing national risk of communicable diseases, improving rural dispensaries, testing and treatment centres; promoting research and innovation in health and sanitation, including indigenous medicine and the use of local raw material; supporting local innovations in protective clothing and sanitation products that can be marketed globally; and promoting healthy living through media and educational programmes.