LL councillors report directors to ACB

A recent audit report commissioned by the 27 councilors of Lilongwe City Council(LCC) claims that senior officials at the local authority misappropriated at least K500 000 ($954) in allowances for field trips they never took.

Documents compiled by ward councillors and made available to The Nation implicate several directors at LCC.

The councillors have since engaged the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to begin prosecuting the implicated officials.

“I have seen the report and it is clear that some kind of criminal activities took place and I support the collective decision by ward councillors to ask the ACB to build a case against these officials,” said Lilongwe City mayor George Chapondera.

Chairperson of the human resource management committee Desmond Bikoko said the money was allegedly swindled between November and December 2014.

Bikoko said the officials were supposed to visit and review markets in the city to ensure that vendors have resettled so that the city sets new revenue targets.

He said: “They [got] 10 days’ allowances to review 35 markets within this period, but the directors never fulfilled any visit. This is the kind of behaviour we discourage because it derails the development of the city.

The documents further reveal how office workers such as messengers and secretaries were also able to sign for the allowances.

LCC has in recent months been gripped by scandals, mostly unearthed by councillors.

A few months ago, The Nation revealed that some council officials are abusing millions in market fees.

And last week, an audit report into the construction of school blocks under the Local Development Fund (LDF) in LCC found that about K41 million was lost through procurement fraud.