Meeting on Chipata council impasse fails to take off
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Wed 28 Dec. 2011, 13:20 CAT
CHIPATA Municipal Council has postponed a meeting aimed at resolving the impasse between town clerk Golden Banda and unionised workers who are calling for his removal.
Zambia United Local Workers Union (ZULAWU) Chipata branch vice-chairperson Cephas Phiri confirmed the development in an interview yesterday. Phiri said he had learnt about the postponement of a meeting through a notice that was written by council's director of administration.
"We are surprised to see that the director of administration had put up a notice that the meeting had been cancelled. We are surprised because the director of administration cannot involve herself in this matter because we had lodged our grievances to the mayor and the provincial local government officer. I am still waiting for my chairman to come so that we can see his worship the mayor to get a clarification over the same," Phiri said.
Asked about his suspension, Phiri said he never received his suspension letter because it was taken to him in the night.
"I refused to get the letter at 20 hours on Thursday and I said I will get it the following day but up to now, I haven't received it. So as far as I am concerned, I am not on suspension until I receive that letter," Phiri said.
He said the union was not aware that the town clerk and the director of finance had been summoned to Lusaka.
Unionised workers were calling for the removal of the Chipata town clerk and top management officers who they accuse of having failed to run the council in an effective manner.
The workers accused the council of not remitting workers contributions to insurance companies and Local Authority Superannuation Fund (LASF).
They also allege that the town clerk got over K40 million during his trip to Cameroon when the council was faced with financial difficulties.
But Banda told journalists last Thursday that the allegations levelled against him were baseless and that the workers were being incited by former top management officers who were transferred from the council.
He said he found the LASF problems when he became town clerk.
Banda said his trip to Cameroon was sanctioned by Cabinet.
Labels: CHIPATA, CHIPATA MUNICIPAL COUNCIL, ZULAW
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Chipata Council orders Sable Construction to re-do township roads
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Thu 24 June 2010, 17:10 CAT
CHIPATA Municipal council has ordered Sable Construction Company to re-do tarring works on some township roads that were shoddily constructed. But Eastern Province MMD chairperson Kennedy Zulu said Sable might be following the specifications in the bill of quantity.
Director of engineering Andrew Zulu said Sable was directed to re-do a 500 meter stretch of the Nabvutika Road in Chipata. He said the company was also directed to improve the quality of the tarmac on a 400 meter stretch between Chipata Day Secondary School turn off and Kapata market.
Zulu said some stretches like the one on the Nabvutika Road developed potholes even before the tarring works were completed.
He said Sable Company would re-do the work at its own cost adding that this was what happened when a client was not happy with the works done.
Zulu explained that the company was expected to put another layer to make the tarmac stronger and stable.
And commenting on the shoddy works done by Sable, Eastern Province MMD chairman Zulu said people should not just condemn the company before looking at the bill of quantity.
“The best thing is to go to the Council and look at the bill of quantity because maybe they (Sable) is following the specifications according to the bill of quantity because I am a contractor myself, there are times whereby in the bill of quantity they have undervalued a particular scope of scope of work,” he said.
Zulu, however, said he was impressed with Sable’s performance on the Chipata-Mfuwe road which started last December.
There have been a lot of concerns on the performance of Sable on Chipata township roads.
Some roads that had already been done were developing cracks within a short period of time.
Others attributed Sable’s poor performance in some roads to the large number of contracts that the company had been awarded.
Labels: CHIPATA, CHIPATA MUNICIPAL COUNCIL, ROADS, SABLE CONTRACTORS
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Chipata mayor bemoans council’s service delivery
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Thursday September 11, 2008 [04:00]
CHIPATA mayor Sinoya Mwale has said he is not impressed with service delivery at Chipata Municipal Council. In a recent interview, Mwale who is also Kapata ward MMD councillor, said
lack of manpower had crippled the operations of the council."There is
no department which has enough manpower, frankly speaking
a council can't run without engineers, planners and without people in the health department," Mwale said.
He appealed to Vice-President Rupiah Banda and local government minister Sylvia Masebo to ensure that the Local Government Service Commission was in effect.
"If the service commission is not re-introduced as soon as possible, I don't see the council improving; instead it will go backwards again. At the moment, I can say the service delivery is at ten per cent. Now what does that mean? Mwale asked.
He said the council could not just be paying salaries to its workers because service delivery was also important to each institution.
Asked whether the shortage of staff was a result of suspensions of some senior staff that were appearing in Chipata magistrates’ court for alleged misappropriation of funds meant for certain projects, Mwale said the shortage of staff had nothing to do with the suspensions.
Labels: CHIPATA, CHIPATA MUNICIPAL COUNCIL, MAYOR, SINOYA MWALE
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