People reject ADC chamber

Mwilang’ombe Area Development Committee (ADC) members in Karonga District have rejected a newly constructed ADC chamber handed over to the community by Karonga District Council.

Speaking in an interview on Saturday, Mwilang’ombe ADC chairperson Naomi Munthali said the building was substandard.

She said: “The roof is not properly aligned and the floor developed huge cracks. The toilet and drainage system are also poorly constructed.

“This is taxpayers’ money, our own money. Therefore, we want durable structures.”

Karonga District director of public works Allan Chitete hailed the community for their stand.

He said in a democracy, power is given to the people to decide what they want.

Said Chitete: “Therefore, rejecting a substandard structure is part of democratic rights and decentralisation process.

“As a council, we will engage the contractor to work on the concerns and we will give him his five percent retention fee once we are satisfied with the project.”

On his part, Karonga District Council chairperson Isaac Kalambo accepted the blame, saying it was high time the council stopped engaging contractors who fail to meet standards.

“Our effort to empower locally-based contractors is not paying off. This has to be reviewed. If we don’t engage these contractors, they should not blame us because what we want is value for money,” he said.