The construction of a staff house at Lungwena Police Unit in Mangochi is being queried by the Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency (Csat).

Csat has written to the Mangochi District Council, noting that the construction is substandard and does not suit the budget allocated to it. “We want the council to tell us mechanisms which they used to monitor the project because what we are seeing is that the project in itself does not reflect the amounts that are being attached to it.” says a letter signed by Csat Executive Director Willy Kambwandira.

The project, which is being implemented using Constituency Development Fund (CDF) under the 2019/20 financial year, is overseen by Dunia Building Contractors, as council records show that the contractor was paid K7 million short of the K20 million that is on the records.

In 2018, the National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Trust in Mulanje established that CDF is the most abused community development fund. The conclusion was made at the District Executive Committee (DEC) when NICE made a presentation on the Public Expenditure Tracking (PET) initiative. “The evaluation that we did on how the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and the District Development Fund (DDF) are managed uncovered that the CDF was the most abused fund because of the political influence in the management of the fund,” said Twambilire Mwabungulu, District Civic Education Officer for NICE.