Officials from Department of Disaster and Management Affairs (DODMA) who were arrested few days ago are appearing before magistrate court to be formerly charged.

Deputy Director of DODMA Fyawupi Mwafongo, DODMA’s Public Relations Officer Chipiliro Khamula and 14 other were arrested on the suspicion that the misused Covid-19 funds.

Mwafongo has been charged with Abuse of office where particulars states that he authorized an amount over 4 million kwacha to be used as allowances and when asked he failed to account for it.

The second charge is Theft by public servant and this applies on all the 16 where the particulars are that the 16 received allowances worth k4, 250, 000 for attending a meeting in Mponera at Linde motel for 2 days and failed to account for it.

Meanwhile, the state has requested that the 16 be remanded for 14 days for them to have enough time to conclude investigations into the matter.