Malawi has suspended extra monthly payments to its 38 000 HIV-positive civil servants, a government official said on Saturday, citing ”gross abuse” of the programme in the Aids-ravaged country.
”The suspension is due to gross abuse of the facility,” said Mary Shaba, principal secretary for nutrition, HIV and Aids in the president’s office.
She said workers were claiming to be HIV-positive in order to cash in on the payments of $35.
”Some people who are not HIV-positive have been cheating to access the facility,” she said.
The payments were a workplace programme aimed at improving nutrition to allow ”people to respond to treatment quickly”, Shaba said.
She said the government would review the programme, which began in 2007, and seek to allow only those eligible to receive the cash.
Malawi has 120 000 public servants whose monthly salaries average $70. About 38 000 of those workers are HIV-positive.
Many Malawians are unable to meet their nutritional requirements, equivalent to $40 annually.
Official estimates indicate that roughly 14% of Malawi’s 12-million population is HIV-positive.
The pandemic has cut life expectancy in Malawi to 36. About 85 000 people die of Aids-related illness every year. — Sapa-AFP