MCC in alleged fraudulent procurement

Mzuzu City Council (MCC) stands accused of abusing Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and other funds by inflating figures of goods and services during procurement processes.

The revelations were made during a full council meeting at Mzuzu Civic Offices yesterday.

Mzuzu City member of Parliament (MP) Leonard Njikho (Democratic Progressive Party-DPP) brought up the issue after councillors suspected that financial transactions were not properly documented.

Njikho claimed that there is massive fraud at the council, especially in the procurement department and that there was need to deal with the situation.

He said he has evidence of how the officers inflate figures for materials or services so that they milk the council of the already limited resources.

Said Njikho: “When councillors request financial documents, they are told the documents will be made available to them, but that never happens. I have to be open here that there is fraud taking place here at the council.

“We need to check figures. We need detailed reports of financial transactions so that councillors are able to check what is happening.”

Youth representative at the council, Charles Kajoloweka, said the council needs to investigate the fraud allegations.

“Fraud is a serious allegation that cannot go uninvestigated. We need to establish what has been happening so that we clear the mess. If this is not properly looked into, the reputation of the council will be affected,” he said.

MCC chief executive officer McCloud Kadammanja also confirmed that the funds for some projects were being abused and the council instituted an audit that verified the abuse.

He said the local authority is handling the matter to ensure that culprits are brought to book. n