Maravi

It’s difficult to believe RDA over-committed govt - Kabanda

It’s difficult to believe RDA over-committed govt - Kabanda
By Moses Kuwema
Sun 14 Nov. 2010, 04:00 CAT

SIMON Kabanda has observed that it is difficult to believe that the RDA over-committed the government without it knowing.

Commenting on the revelations in the Auditor General’s report in which the Road Development Agency over-committed the government to over K1 trillion in road contracts and the subsequent firing of some of its directors, Kabanda argued that the Minister of Works and Supply as the ‘overall boss’ must have known about the issue.

“The over-commitment was not done without the government knowing because the Minister of Works and Supply has authority over the RDA so he is supposed to know what is happening with the institution that he oversees. The minister oversees all the contracts that the RDA enters into,” Kabanda, who is also Citizens Forum executive secretary, said.

He also said the issue of over-commitment could also have been used to siphon money into people’s pockets and as such called for a thorough investigations and bringing to book everyone involved.

And Kabanda has said there is need for the Auditor General’s office to be given power to prosecute cases of misappropriation that are highlighted in their reports.

He said with the current situation, the Auditor General’s office risked becoming meaningless.

“If the Auditor General had the powers to prosecute, by now those people could have been prosecuted. The government must review the powers of the Auditor General so that they don’t just end at giving us the report but go further to prosecute,” Kabanda said.

Kabanda said the firing of directors at the RDA was not enough and called for further investigations into the matter.

Labels: CORRUPTION, MINISTRY OF WORKS AND SUPPLY, RDA, SIMON KABANDA

posted by MrK @ 6:41 PM