Zomba Malosa MP booted out of Parliament
Zomba Malosa legislator Grace Kwelepeta (Democratic Progressive Party) yesterday took the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Simplex Chithyola Banda head on when seeking assurance about payment to contractors for Domasi Community Hospital project to be completed.
But her insistence, which included shouting as she responded to the revised allocation for the Ministry of Health vote from K167.5 billion to K191.3 billion, saw her being being ordered out of Parliament in line with Standing Order 105 for causing disorder.
In an interview, Kwelepeta said she was concerned that Parliament has been allocating funds to Domasi Community Hospital and yet the money is never paid to the contractor.
She said: “In 2022, we approved K1 billion which when the contractor issued certificates he was never paid and has not been paid anything in 2023 either.”
With Domasi Rural Hospital incomplete, the MP said the nearest public hospital is Zomba Central Hospital which is about 13 kilometres away.
But in his response, Chithyola Banda assured Kwelepeta that the revised budget has a K500 million allocation for the hospital project.
In a letter to the director of Buildings dated October 18 2023, the contractors including Blithe Construction Limited state their intention to terminate the contract due non-payment.
“Since October 13 2013, we have been constructing Domasi Community Hospital with several challenges mainly of delayed payments and price adjustments due to inflation.” reads the letter in part.
