ActionAid study reveals corruption; rapid population affects service delivery in Lilongwe City

ActionAid Malawi study findings disseminated on Tuesday has revealed rampant high level fraud and corruption at Lilongwe City Council and rapid populations are affecting service delivery in the country’s capital.

Lilongwe residents have been complaining about poor service delivery by the council manifested by heaps of uncollected garbage and poor roads.

Delivering the report, Action Aid Malawi Women’s Rights Manager, Chikumbutso Ngosi Ndaferankhande said the council collects only K75 million monthly against Blantyre which collects K225 million.

“This is very surprising because Lilongwe is bigger than Blantyre  but there is potential for more revenue which may increase service delivery for example a campaign on revenue of 3 weeks in December 2016 collected K70 million,” said Ndaferankhande.

The report indicates that corruption, fraud and lack of data on market users and market fees are some of the challenges locking the city.

The report also reveals that the City is failing to deliver its duties due to large amount of arrears that residents owe the council.

Ndaferankhande also observed that Lilongwe is not well prepared for migrating population resulting in more urban migrants ending impoverished than rural.

“The research findings show that development of unplanned settlements such as roads, water, electricity, security and garbage collection are not planned before hand,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Study has recommended setting up of service committee to act as a point for engagement between the urban poor duty bearers responsible for services in the city.

Secondly, the study has recommended institutionalizing assessment of services amongst the urban poor and engagement of service providers.

The study has further recommended further provision of information on entitlements and service standards which is the basis for enforcing accountability in services.

ActionAid also recommended that the Council should improve relationship with the media and non state actors, the continued engagement with the public and business people on issues of debt.

Commenting on the study, Lilongwe City Deputy Mayor Councillor Juliana Kaduya said the city is failing to provide quality services because of money.

“The reason is that we do not have enough resources that is why we are failing to do our job in satisfied manner to the public,” said Kaduya.

Kaduya revealed plans that the city intends to send all revenue officers to a three months leave and hire the new team in order to spot the difference.