Communities decry mortuary project delay

Wasambo Public Expenditure Tracking chairperson Zebedia Mvula has bemoaned the delay to construct a mortuary at Chilumba Rural Hospital in Karonga District.

Speaking in an interview on Wednesday, he said the delay has also made it difficult to install a mortuary refrigerator donated by the Malawi Heath Equity Network two months ago.

“The refrigerator is outside and it risks developing technical fault due to the delay to install it as the mortuary project has stalled,” he said.

Mvula said efforts to engage the district council to establish reasons why the facility is yet to finish have not yielded anything.

“We tried to engage the district council officials with the latest initiative being the September 30 meeting which council officials shunned despite confirming their attendance,” he said.

Mvula claimed the council was failing to explain the amount spent on the project he said is substandard.

But in a separate interview, Karonga District director of public works Allan Chitete said the mortuary project issue was discussed during full council meetings.

He said he believed since the area has a ward councillor who attends full council meetings, he must have briefed the community leaders on the project deadline, amount spent and the contractor.

“However, the officers might have failed to attend the meeting due to other official engagements.