KATHMANDU: Amid the criticism made by the public expressing their skepticism over the proper utilization of the fund made under COVID-19 prevention and control headings, the government on Friday made public the details of the expenditure on prevention and control of coronavirus pandemic in the country.

Earlier, a meeting of the High-Level Coordination Committee for the Prevention and Control of  the COVID-19 had claimed to have spent Rs. 10 billion for prevention and control to the pandemic.

Citing that the committee did not come with the details of the expenses and tried to skip the public eyes by offering only the lump sum of the expenses, the public has taken to the streets demanding transparency.

The youths have taken to the streets voluntarily accusing the government of resorting to corruption and demanding details of expenditure made to fight the virus.

Addressing the concern, the government has furnished the breakdown of the money spent in the fight against COVID-19 on Friday

As per the details offered by the government, the three tiers of government: the federal, the province and the local governments have spent a sum of Rs. 8,391,199,000 in COVID-19 response.

According to the details, the central government has spent Rs.4, 105,506,000 while the province and the local governments have spent Rs. 1,300,499,000 and Rs. 2,985,194,000 respectively.

The details show that Rs. 3,908,800,000 was spent in importing medical goods and equipment from the Coronavirus Prevention, Control and Treatment Fund (CPCTF) established by the federal government.

Similarly, Rs. 1,125,000,000 has been spent for setting up health infrastructure, Rs. 58,333,000 for manpower mobilization, Rs. 135,598,000 for setting up quarantine facilities and Rs. 401,509,000 for other miscellaneous activities.

Province wise details show that Province 1 spent Rs. 193,560,000, Province spent Rs. 133,946,000, Bagmati Province spent Rs. 136,700,000, Gandaki Province spent Rs.154, 210,000 and Province 5 spent Rs. 77,930,000 in COVID-19 response till date.

Likewise, the Karnali Province has spent Rs. 239,283,000 and Sudurpaschim Province has spent Rs. 364,870,000 so far, as mentioned in the details made public by the government on Friday.