Veep justifies infrastructure project inspections

Vice-President Saulos Chilima has justified his tour of public infrastructure projects stressing that they fall under the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development and Public Sector Reforms which he heads.

Chilima, who has been touring some public infrastructure projects in the Southern Region from Tuesday this week, said most of them are under the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) within his ministry.

He said: “Under this ministry, there is the planning component and also the monitoring and evaluation component and we are right to come out here and see.

“But further is that we don’t do this behind anybody’s back.”

Chilima said relevant stakeholders such as Ministry of Transport and Public Works and Roads Authority (RA) officials, are  present during the tours.

He also said most of the projects are financed by taxpayers’ money; hence, the need for monitoring and evaluation to ensure that Malawians deserve quality out of the projects.

During on Wednesday’s tour, the Veep visited the Nsanje-In-Land Port where he was briefed by Ministry of Transport and Public Works officials on their plans to use the port area as a container yard for containers transported by rail from Beira in Mozambique once rehabilitation of the Marka to Nsanje Railway is completed.

The port area has concrete slab that was constructed as a holding area for shipment containers.

Chilima later visited Nsanje Railway Station which is undergoing rehabilitation.

He also inspected the refurbishment of railway sleepers at the station.

From there, the Veep inspected Mtayamoyo Bridge at Bangula and later Mapelera Bridge on the East Bank Road. In a separate interview, Nsanje district commissioner Medson Matchaya said the projects are important as they will facilitate easy transportation of goods, thereby reducing cost of services.