* Martha Chizuma says her office received a lot of complaints on these issues
* Including one complaint dominating in terms of procurement and ghost projects
By Linda Likomwa, MANA
Phalombe District Council has come under investigation of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) following recent recruitment of health workers at the yet to be opened district hospital, abuse of constituency and district development funds (CDF and DDF), among others.
ACB Director General, Martha Chizuma disclosed this on Monday in an interview on the sidelines of an anti-corruption awareness meeting with Council officials and partners, that was scheduled to engage the Council following the National Anti-Corruption Strategy which the Ministry of Local Government signed recently.
The Ministry of Local Government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the ACB as a deliberate attempt to give life to the commitment, motivate the Council on corruption fight and the benefits that will follow if they honestly fight corruption.
Chizuma said: “There are issues of procurement especially on CDF and DDF and a recent recruitment of hospital staff as there is alleged nepotism which has happened as well as bribes by chiefs during land distribution and disputes.”
She added that her office received a lot of complaints on these issues, including one complaint dominating in terms of procurement and ghost projects which made prompted them to make a follow up.
She said despite the Council having Institutional Integrity Committee (IIC), they have not done much on corruption prevention and she advised the IIC to be reviewing procurement processes and be doing integral tests so that they should be able to report what they have managed to prevent corruption and how much they saved in the process.
Phalombe District Council chairperson, Bernard Komwa said they will work with the its secretariat to ensure there is transparency and accountability in all Council undertakings to avoid corruption.
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Member of Parliament for Phalombe East, Robert Mwene admitted wrong-doing since they are the main implementing partners of CDF, admitting that they pressurize the secretariat to do things without following proper procedures.
Mwene added that they have been told to do the paperwork in terms of project planning so that they have no pressure during project implementation.
In July this year, President Lazarus Chakwera launched 20 weeks of anti-corruption awareness under the theme: ‘Fight Corruption, Protect the Future of Malawi.’
