Maravi

(DAILY MAIL) Council officers warned

Council officers warned
By NDUBI MVULA

VICE-PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has warned that Government would not condone misapplication or misappropriation of public funds by councillors and council officers as it retards development. He said this yesterday when he officially opened the 52nd Annual Conference of the Local Government Association of Zambia at the New Fairmount attended by all the country’s councils.

“The New Deal administration of President Levy Mwanawasa will not compromise the need for councils to adhere to the tenets of transparency and accountability in the application of funds," he said.

Mr Banda said he was aware that some councillors and officers had been mentioned in audit reports for having failed to account for public funds particularly the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and grants.

He, however, expressed gratitude that the Minister of Local Government and Housing, Ms Sylvia Masebo, was working tirelessly in ensuring that erring councillors and officers were disciplined.

“Councils must be bold enough to take disciplinary action against erring councillors and officers. There is need for councils to strictly adhere to financial regulations to avoid pitfalls.

“It is contrary to the financial regulations for councillors to handle any council funds including CDF," he said.

The theme of the conference is "Strengthening Local Government for Effective Citizen Participation".

To strengthen the management of the CDF, Mr Banda directed Ms Masebo to streamline the procurement process to ensure that district council tender committees are functional in accordance with procurement guidelines provided by the Zambia National Tender Board.

Mr Banda also said he was aware that the Anti-Corruption Commission has established integrity committees in Lusaka and Ndola city councils to check corrupt practices at places of work.

“I want to call upon the Anti-Corruption Commission to consider facilitating councils in order to strengthen the fight against corruption at the local level,” he said.

He assured delegates that Government was still committed to the implementation of the decentralisation programme.

“Decentralisation is a lengthy and complex process that requires a lot of care in implementation. To avoid pitfalls, Government is taking extra care in the implementation of this very essential programme,” he said.

And Ms Masebo said urged delegates to follow laid down guidelines in receiving of funding adding that councils that do not do so may not receive it.

She said there was need for the local authority to clean their house to enable smooth operations.

On the late release of funding, Ms Masebo said the blame should not be heaped on the Ministry of Finance but on her because she was not impressed with the presentation from councils.

“Most of the delays are because some of the presentations of budget were senseless," she said.

Local Government Association of Zambia president, Charles Mumena said individual local authorities cannot exclusively address the challenges facing local government without the indispensable need for civic engagement.

He said this was because they are convinced that local governance transcends the local authority to include other non-state local stakeholders.

Labels: CHARLES MUMENA, CONSTITUENCY DEVELOPMENT FUND, CORRUPTION, COUNCILS, LOCAL GOVERNMENT, LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:14 PM