Govt departments owe LWB K267m in unsettled bills

Some government ministries and departments owe Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) K267.2 million in unsettled water bills accrued over a period of between four to six months, it has been learnt.

According to inside sources, the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) is the major culprit owing LWB slightly over K141 million in unsettled water bills, with the police coming second on K80 million. Other departments include prison which has an outstanding bill totalling K10.2million.

The health sector, which is currently rocked with so many service delivery problems, also has dues to square with LWB in form of Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) owing the utility provider amounts in excess of K20million while Bwaila Hospital is yet to settle a K14 million bill. Primary schools across Lilongwe, which are also riling with class congestion, among other problems, owe LWB over K6 million. Secondary schools, which apparently do not depend on the mother ministry to pay utility bills, are yet to honour total water bills of slightly over K2 million.

LWB public relations officer (PRO) Trevor Phoya, while refusing to divulge more details owing to customer privacy, confirmed that the board is owed millions of money by its customers among them government officials .

Said Phoya: “Indeed, most of our customers; corporate, individual or government departments owe us in millions a situation which affects our operations. Due to these unsettled bills we are failing to invest or carry out maintenance works.”

Phoya also alluded to the fact that the board has been meeting its customers, especially those with huge bills, to agree on payment schedules.

“Some of the amounts our customers owe us are huge and knowing that they cannot afford to pay the amounts in full at once owing to the prevailing economic challenges, we meet them so they can commit themselves on the payment procedure. Normally we insist on them settling current bills,” he said.

In a separate interview, prison spokesperson Evance Phiri confirmed the development, but was quick to say that officials were already processing the payment.

“Indeed, we owe LWB, but our officials are already processing the payments and as we are talking,” Phiri said.