National News

Councillors aiding corruption—CCJP

Dormant councillors are aiding the looting of public resources in Karonga, a new study has showed.

The public expenditure tracking survey by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) reveals that resources for uplifting poor communities will continue being plundered unless the councillors diligently provide checks and balances.

Nkhata: Councillors not keen

The study was funded by Tilitonse Fund through the Danish Church Aid.

Karonga Diocese CCJP desk officer Louis Nkhata urged all councillors to ceaselessly use their oversight powers as many projects—especially those funded by Local Development Fund (LDF), District Development Fund (DDF) and Constituency Development Fund (CDF)—keep stalling despite the remittance of funds by government.

“We have verified worrisome abuse of public development resources such as LDF and DDF in Karonga, where the construction of health centres at Galileya in Traditional Authority [T/A] Wasambo, Thawiro and Wovwe in T/A Mwirang’ombe have missed deadlines although government invested a lot of resources into these works,” he said.
It is pathetic that most councillors do not demonstrate interest in inspecting projects happening in their areas, Nkhata stated.

But the councillors say they are rarely consulted by Karonga District Council secretariat.
“Councillors are new in the field. It is hard to track what happened before our term,” said council chairperson Ernest Mwalughali, pledging to follow up issues raised by CCJP. 

Related Articles

Back to top button