Citizens forums expose accountability flaws

A community irrigation project in Kampanikiza Village in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Masasa in Ntcheu that was supposed to receive 20 bags of fertiliser ended up receiving 14 while the remainder was pocketed by Area Development Committee (ADC) members.

The fertiliser was meant for members of Tsanthi, Chimvula and Manyenje community schemes.

Masasa Citizen Forum secretary, Audrick Binulani, in an interview said they sensed some irregularities and advised the community to refuse the fertiliser.

“The ADC withheld six bags of fertiliser per scheme, saying since they are not paid, they would share among themselves instead of giving each irrigation scheme 20 bags,” he said.

Patrick Lameck of Chikande Citizen Forum said in his area, SSB blocks for a school block were made of sand while cement was being sold.

“We also had problems with development of a school block at Chikande Primary School where the SSB blocks were being made using a lot of sand and little cement and, as a result, the school block collapsed even before it was completed,” Lameck said.

Ntcheu National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust district civic education manager Alinafe Chikakuda, said the trust formed and trained citizens forums to actively monitor public development projects in their respective areas to curb abuse of funds.

“Constituency Development Fund (CDF), Local Development Fund (LDF) and Fistrict Development Fund (DDF) are meant for development which should benefit the people and should not be shared amongst duty bearers or benefit a group of individuals but the whole community,” Chikakuda said.