Lilongwe City Council (LCC) has fired two directors, reinstated one and demoted a fourth one, all of whom were suspended in 2016, authorities have confirmed.
Those fired are director of finance Jeremiah Sibande and director of administration Dyton Milanzi while director of engineering Julius Tsogolani has been reinstated and director of planning and development Hillary Kamela has been demoted to the position of deputy director.
The four were suspended over issues which the council’s spokesperson Tamara Chafunya could not disclose only saying they were administrative in nature.
However, the authorities are keeping a tight lid on how the Local Government Service Commission, an affiliate of the Ministry of Local Government which handled the issues, arrived at its decisions.
Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development spokesperson Muhlabase Mughogho, who confirmed the fate of the four people, also refused to give reasons that led to the decisions.
She said: “The ministry believes in employee–employer confidentiality, as such, we cannot divulge information on what led to the decisions.”
Local Government Commission chairperson Sophie Kalimba last week could also not give reasons as to why hearing of the matter dragged for two years without making a determination.
During the suspension the directors were on half pay and had all other benefits except for security guard at their houses taken away.
But in an interview on Thursday, Sibande indicated that he was charged with disregarding an approval from the chief executive officer (CEO) to authorise payment of a voucher. He alleged that there was no approval that he disregarded.
Last week, the ministry reinstated LCC CEO Moza Zeleza after clearing him from charges of alleged underperformance of the council.
He was nevertheless told to improve on service delivery at the council which lately has been entangled in a number of controversies such as inefficiencies and wastefulness of resources, reports of corruption among staff and alleged fraud.
Last year, the council was owed about K10 billion in city arrears accrued from 2001.
