Community demands explanation on project
A community in Traditional Authority Msakambewa in Dowa is demanding an explanation from managers of a classroom block project at Chigudu Primary School.
The community through their radio listening club and area development committee (ADC) members met authorities to explain how the project resources, said to have been worth K7.7 million were being used on the building.
ADC chairperson Blackson Mayani, said they decided to inspect the project in 2015 soon after his election.
He said: “In March 2015, we came to inspect the project. That’s when we learned that all the materials worth K7.7 million were delivered to the school and the head teacher was in charge of materials such as cement to be used on site.”
According to Mayani, at the time of the inspection, cement had run out, although the project was yet to be completed.
He said members were, however, surprised that the head teacher got transferred to another school within a month of the inquiry.
Group village head Gwireni, who worked with the radio listening club and the ADC members on the investigations, said they have since summoned the said head teacher to explain to the community how he managed the materials.
The community members got their drive to follow on the project through Public Expenditure Tracking Project being implemented by Oxfam and Development Communications Trust (DCT) with funding from Tilitonse.
Oxfam programme manager, Anthony Masamba, said they are happy because the community’s actions are a proof of how much empowered they are.
He said the people get training in how they can follow up on public developments using data collection forms.
Said Masamba: “We are happy that these community members are able to demand explanation on how some developments are being implemented. This is exactly what we wanted them to be able to do.”
When Nation on Sunday visited the block on Thursday the plaster was falling off while the floor was cracked, exposing pure soil. n
