Chilima to assess council projects
Vice-President Saulos Chilima is from today expected to embark on an assessment of public infrastructure projects for city and district councils.
The assessment visits come a week after the reforms department, headed by the Vice-President, finalised engaging parastatals on reforms progress leading to an introduction of a fortnight centre-spread in the local media showcasing progress of the reforms.
In an interview yesterday, Public Sector Reforms spokesperson McCarthy Mwalwimba said apart from the assessment visits, Chilima will also hold meetings with councils on progress of reforms.
He said: “I can confirm that the Vice-President will have these engagements this week on reforms in district and city councils in the Central Region. Apart from visiting the projects, the Vice-President will also have sit-down meetings with the councils on progress and way forward.”
Last week, the department engaged parastatals on the progress made so far, with a call that institutions must now enhance publicity of their reforms for the public to know improvements in service delivery.
As one initiative, the reforms department will be carrying out a bulletin centre-spread of reforms in newspapers where institutions will be showcasing their reforms.
In the first bulletin, Northern Region Water Board, Lilongwe Water Board, Malawi National Examinations Board and Tobacco Commission (TC) showcased their reforms with TC graduating from a perennial loss maker to now remitting to government after reforms.
Among some of the reform projects that Lilongwe City Council has been implementing on include road construction at Area 12 Kauma and Area 44.
The city council also promised to restore street lights along the Presidential Way, Chayamba and Chilembwe streets under their reform initiative to ease flow of traffic and enhance street lighting.
According to documents we have seen, on its part Lilongwe District Council has been carrying out reforms aimed at enhancing agro-processing and value addition on agricultural products.
This will see the Vice-President visiting Gwiritse Cooperative and Arcades Youth Association which are doing agro-processing and value addition.
A Local Authority Performance Assessment report last year exposed glaring public finance management gaps in 28 local councils.
