Chikwelete asks home affairs ministry to account for K2bn
By Henry Sinyanwe
Thu 07 Jan. 2010, 04:01 CAT
LUSAKA Mayor Robert Chikwelete has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to account for the K2 billion that was spent on police officers deployed to remove street vendors.
Chikwelete said the bigger task of removing vendors from the streets was only done in three days while the rest of the days, officers were just spending time in the streets doing nothing.
“The actual removal of vendors was only done in less than three days and the rest of the days officers were found lazing around. We have not received any details on how the K 2 billion was spent by home affairs,” said Chikwelete.
And Lusaka City Council public relations manager Chanda Makanta has expressed disappointment at the lack of cooperation by the Ministry of Home Affairs saying that each time they needed their help, they had to spend large sums of money for their service.
“We all belong to Zambia and when it calls for duty, we should help each other and not only when there is money,” she said.
Asked on what the local authority was doing about the vendors that were back on the streets, Makanta said they have deployed council police and they also asked for help from the police but were only given 18 police officers who were placed at strategic positions.
She said council police, who are not armed when on duty, are usually harassed by the vendors hence the need for help from the Zambia Police.
“Inasmuch as these people need to feed their families from the street business, as a local authority we also have the duty to keep the city clean but we cannot do this alone. We need help from the police,” said Makanta.
However, when contacted for a comment, home affairs minister Lameck Mangani said the issues raised by the local authority were administrative.
Mangani said he had not been informed about any problems that the local authority was facing with his ministry.
Labels: MAYOR, MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS, ROBERT CHIKWELETE
Read more...
Sata writes Rupiah over ‘abuse of public funds’
Written by Ernest Chanda
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 12:14:25 AM
PATRIOTIC Front (PF) leader Michael Sata has written to President Rupiah Banda over the K2 billion which the Ministry of Local Government and Housing has transferred from the Lusaka City Council account to Ministry of Home Affairs. In a letter to President Banda dated September 10, 2009 and copied to the acting Minister of Local Government and Housing, Minister of Home Affairs and local government permanent secretary, Sata contended that the action was an abuse of public funds.
He argued that the local authorities under the provisions of the local government Act, Cap 281 of the Laws of Zambia were established as corporations autonomous of the national government.
"I would like to bring it to your attention that the Ministry of Local Government and Housing about three months ago under the instructions of the late Minister of Local Government and Housing Mr [Benny] Tetamashimba withdrew the sum of K2 billion from the said account without consultation with the council and the money was not used for council purposes but paid to the Ministry of Home Affairs for the removal of street vendors' exercise," the letter read in part.
"This in our view is abuse of the council resources. It is also not a transparent way of managing council affairs on behalf of the residents and all stakeholders. It is a fake way of justifying the plunder of public funds. In view of what I have stated above, we demand that the bank account in question should without any further delay be transferred to the Lusaka City Council by the ministry, failure to which we shall instruct our lawyers to commence legal proceedings over the matter."
Sata maintained that there was no law which allowed the Ministry of Local Government and Housing to manage funds for councils.
"The councils own assets and maintain various bank accounts for their revenue collections. There is therefore no law, which allows the Ministry of Local Government and Housing to maintain and/or manage a bank account on behalf of any council for whatever purpose. However, this principle has been breached by the Ministry of Local Government and Housing which has been managing an account for the Inter-city Bus Terminus on behalf of Lusaka City Council without any resolution or authority of the council," stated Sata.
Labels: CORRUPTION, LCC, MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS, MINISTRY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, RUPIAH BANDA, SATA
Read more...
