KARONGA (Maravi Post)–Traditional leaders and development committees in Karonga are accusing the district council officials for mismanaging K51 million for MASAF 4 fund.
This was revealed to the media on Tuesday during the meeting organized by the Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) in Lupembe village the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Kyungu in the same district.
Speaking during the meeting, Group Village Headman Mwangolera said the officers were faking names and project distributed materials. For instance, Mwangolera said that in his area, 450 ghost names were included
in the MASAF 4 project by the council officials.
“In my area, the development committees registered 1680 people but the office of the District Commissioner added 2130 without our knowledge,” said Mwangolera.
“This means that the officers plundered about K3, 240, 000 from 450 lists of ghost names as each person was receiving K7, 200 after working for 12 days,” he disclosed.
Concurring with Mwangolera, Lupembe Area Development Committee Vincent Kayuni said “these officers were also faking records that they have distributed materials such as wheelbarrows, bags of cement among others for projects like irrigation and schools.”
He commended their Member of Parliament Frank Mwenefumbo for being transparent in managing Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
Maravi Post has also found that the communities from all five Traditional Authorities in the district have petitioned the council officials to explain where the money has gone. The council is yet to issue a comment on the matter.
Meanwhile, the community has hailed the CHRR for equipping them with knowledge of tracking budget through its project funded by the National Democratic Institute. According them, they are now able to trace budget without the help of any organization.
Issues of siphoning public fund at Karonga district council have now become an order of the day but no one has been arrested.