Thursday, October 07, 2010

Mongu mayor impeached for demanding probe into abused funds

COMMENT - I absolutely commend Mayor Dawn Mumbwe for her actions. It is often said that there is as much corruption at the council level as there is at the national level. However, this example proves that there are many more eyes on the money at the local level than there are at the national and ministerial level. Can anyone in the ministries or parliament call for the impeachment of any government minister or the president because of embezzlement of funds? So bravo to Mongu's Mayor Dawn Mumbwe.

Mongu mayor impeached for demanding probe into abused funds
By Mwala Kalaluka
Thu 07 Oct. 2010, 04:00 CAT

NEWLY-elected Mongu Mayor Dawn Mumbwe has been ‘impeached’ for insisting that town clerk Frank Kalenga should temporarily vacate office to allow for a probe in recent audit revelations that highlighted rampant abuse of funds at the MMD-dominated local authority.

But Western Province minister Sikwibele Mwapela has warned that the MMD would lose the Mongu Central seat to the opposition if moves to discuss the audit report continued to be blocked.

Mumbwe confirmed in an interview that she was interdicted during a special council meeting she called to discuss the findings of an audit and inspection report covering the period September 2009 to April 2010 undertaken by an auditor from the Western Province Local Government Office.

Mumbwe said the special full council meeting was held in the Mongu Council chamber on October 2, 2010 to discuss the above audit and inspection report that implicated Kalenga and other council officers in the mismanagement of council funds and government grants.

She said before the meeting in question, Mongu Central MMD parliamentarian and deputy defence minister Joseph Mulyata called her and told her to stop pushing for the special council meeting to discuss the audit report. “He called me and threatened me that ‘Ms Mumbwe, if you continue calling for the special council meeting it will backfire on you and we are going to impeach you’ and it has happened,” Mumbwe said.

“I have been interdicted. I am still a Mayor but I have been interdicted. I was interdicted on the 2nd of October because instead of bringing the audit report, the town clerk prepared a document showing that I had abused my office.”

Mumbwe said grounds on which she was interdicted were that she had abused her office when she asked Kalenga through a letter dated September 17, 2010 to vacate office and hand-over the keys to her following his defiance in notifying the councillors of the special council meeting to discuss the audit report.

Another ground that was that Mumbwe lifted the suspension of a councillor who challenged Mulyata to explain the misapplication of Constituency Development Funds (CDF) in Mongu Central.

The document further stated that Mumbwe, who was elected as Mayor on September 8, 2010, had breached her oath of office when she allegedly divulged to the public the audit and inspection report before it could be considered by the council.

Mumbwe said during the special council meeting where she was interdicted, Mulyata chased some members of the public that came to follow the discussion on the audit report.

“Some stakeholders who were inside when they realised that it was not the about the audit report, they walked out,” Mumbwe said. “Currently workers have stayed for six months without being paid.”

Mumbwe said local government permanent secretary Timothy Hakuyu directed Mongu Council to discuss the audit report and send recommendations to his office but that Kalenga and the director of finance a Muyapekwa responded to the report and sent recommendations without the input from the councillors.

Mumbwe has since called on the Ministry of Local Government to constitute a different body to discuss the audit report and ignore Kalenga’s unilateral response.

But Mwapela, who is also MMD provincial secretary, has advised Mulyata not to block the deliberations on the audit report.

Mwapela said it was disappointing that MMD councillors were failing to work together and he asked Mulyata to be in the forefront and meet with the councillors to discuss the audit report.

“If the council has not done anything wrong, there is nothing to hide,” said Mwapela. “We are heading for election; if he continues with that kind of confusion, MMD will lose that seat, Mongu Central.”

Efforts to get a comment from Mulyata proved futile by press time.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,


Read more...

posted by MrK @ 3:27 PM 0 Comments

Friday, March 12, 2010

Police summon Mongu town clerk over violence threats

Police summon Mongu town clerk over violence threats
By Mwala Kalaluka
Fri 12 Mar. 2010, 07:40 CAT

POLICE have opened a docket for Mongu town clerk Frank Kalenga after a female MMD councillor complained that he wanted to manhandle her over a petition that seeks to remove him from office. But Kalenga said although councillor Dawn Mumbwe dared him to beat her if he were a man, he told her to get lost because she were already dead.

Sources said Mumbwe complained against Kalenga on grounds that he threatened to beat her up recently. The sources said the issue arose from a petition that had been signed by 15 out of the 33 councillors, urging Mongu Mayor George Simushi to call for a special council meeting that sought to address the management problems at the local authority.

“Our council has a lot of problems and so we have petitioned based on several reasons,” the source said.
The source said one of the issues that needed to be probed was the dubious allocation of plots at the new Kasima area.

“We are in a fix by Kalenga. We want him removed. We have since petitioned the minister of local government, which we also gave the mayor but he says he has not seen it,” the source said. “Kasima land was given by the Litunga. The land was surveyed but what happened is that it was not well surveyed and most of the plots have been allocated dubiously.”

The source said the councillors wanted to know how many plots had been allocated and how much had been realised.

“Money for a play park in Mongu has been mismanaged and council resolutions are not being implemented,” the source said.

The source said the council public toilet project that gobbled K169 million had not only been condemned by the Ministry of Health owing to its location, but had also stalled.

“Houses are being gutted in Mongu and people are dying because the fire tender is a white elephant despite money having been released from the ministry to repair it,” the source said. “There is a total breakdown of systems and tribalism is quite rife and the other thing is that the mayor and the town clerk boycotted International Women’s Day. So the council women did not march.”

The source said Kalenga wanted to beat Mumbwe on suspicion that she orchestrated the petition to remove him from office.

But Kalenga, who confirmed that Mumbwe had reported him to the police, described the action as “Mongu politics that is based on tribalism.”

“That is the same nonsense from the same group that continues. I have no time to beat people because beating people is failing to reason,” Kalenga said. “She came to me and said ‘if you are a man beat me’ but I said she is already dead and I told her to get lost.”

Mayor Simushi said he had not received the councillors’ petition but only heard rumours that Kalenga wanted to beat Mumbwe.

Simushi claimed that Mongu Council was performing very well and the allocation of plots at Kasima area had been conducted in line with procedures.



Labels: , ,


Read more...

posted by MrK @ 9:13 PM 0 Comments