Ntcheu asked to refund K11m CDF money

The Ntcheu District Council has been asked to refund in installments the K11 million (about $27 500) meant for seven constituencies for projects under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

The funds are reported to have been diverted to other projects.

Some of the members of Parliament (MPs) from the seven affected constituencies The Nation interviewed and Ntcheu District Commissioner (DC) Paul Kalilombe confirmed the development.

Following the diversion of the money, some contractors were forced to abandon projects for non-payment of their dues, a situation that prompted the MPs to form a task force to investigate the status of CDF.

Ntcheu North MP Assan Lipande confirmed in an interview that as parliamentarians they formed the task force to conduct an audit which discovered that CDF money was not properly used and thereafter they started pushing district council officials to refund the money.

He said: “We were even forced to pay for materials that we got on credit from our pockets because officials at the assembly [council] could not give us money. Everytime we asked from the DC’s office they said funding had not been made and the money had already been disbursed.”

Lipande alleged that the money was diverted between January and June this year when Hamisi Twabi was Ntcheu DC.

Kalilombe confirmed that the council is paying the MPs K200 000 (about $500) monthly from June and was optimistic that by December the debt will have been offset.

“Initially the MPs were saying that over K20 million [$50 000] was missing, but after some audits it was discovered that the money that was misallocated is between K7 million [$17 500] and K11 million. I don’t know what happened to the money that went missing, but the fact is we are paying the MP’s in installments,” he said.

Kalilombe said the development has affected various activities in the district which have stalled. He said the funds offsetting the debt are being collected as fees in other sectors such as markets and land rates.

Twabi, who was transferred from Ntcheu in June to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development headquarters in Lilongwe, said the issue is coming out because some people just wanted to tarnish his image.