Community participation key in local council resource tracking

Lack of capacity, knowledge and participation among citizens to monitor management and utilisation of development resources at district councils is promoting mismanagement and abuse of resources by council officials, a Development Communications Trust (DCT) official has said.

DCT projects officer Edna Bvalani said this during a stakeholder’s consultative meeting held in Phalombe on Tuesday.

She said DCT in partnership with Oxfam and Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) will implement a project to enhance knowledge of communities so that they are empowered to question those in power.

“The partnership will support communities to demand transparency and accountability through engaging and influencing their Local Councils,” she said.

Community members from Traditional Authority (T/A) Nazombe, echoed the sentiments saying development structures such as the Village Development Committees (VDC’s) are only involved in identification of development needs.

“We should also be told the amount of resources that have been allocated to projects so that we should be able to track and compare results and cost.” said a member of Misomali VDC, Robert Chilomo. n