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2 city councils’ CEOs contracts not renewed

Ministry of Local Government has not renewed contracts for chief executive officers (CEOs) for Blantyre and Lilongwe city councils and has since invited applications from interested candidates to fill the posts.

Minister of Local Government Blessings Chinsinga said in an interview on Monday that the government has opted not to renew contracts for Alfred Chanza of Blantyre City and John Chome of Lilongwe City to open the positions to competitive recruitment processes.

Chinsinga: It is not automatic that contracts should be renewed

He said: “It is not automatic that when the contract ends then it is renewed. Yes, some expressed interest, but they will have to compete with others in an open, transparent and accountable recruitment process.”

Chinsinga said this is in line with the vision by the Tonse Alliance administration to professionalise the local government administration and make it the destination for the best and brightest brains.

According to the minister, acting CEOs for the two city councils have since been drawn from serving directors within their establishments.

The Local Government Service Commission at the weekend advertised for the CEO positions that also included Zomba City Council where Charles Thombozi resigned in December last year.

Thombozi confirmed his resignation in a telephone interview on Tuesday while both Chome and Chanza could not pick up our phone calls on numerous attempts since Monday.

In a separate interview, Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira said while there is no harm in not renewing the CEO’s contracts, however, the concern is that there is no transparency and accountability in recruitment of such top positions in councils.

He said based on previous scenarios, recruitment of such positions in the respective city councils, has been based on political affiliation and not competency and qualifications.

“The consequence of that is what we see in our cities where there are poor roads, substandard projects, abuse of resources and poor service delivery.

“CEOs are sometimes strategically put in such positions to siphon public funds to finance political parties,”Kambwandira said.

In recent years, city council CEOs have been blamed for using council resources in supporting various political party activities and refusing to grant permission to anti-government protesters, among others.

Government hired Chanza in 2016, replacing Ted Nandolo while Chome was hired in 2015, replacing Richard Hara.

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