Lilongwe City Council under-fire over poor roads: Ministry taking disciplinary action
Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has commenced disciplinary action against Lilongwe City Council (LCC) following reports of gross negligence in relation to roads upgrading programme, Nyasa Times can reveal.
The council has been put under spotlight in what is termed as ‘roads-gate’ due to substandard work on some of the upgraded roads in the city under City Roads Upgrading Programme which the ministry is implementing in all four cities of the country.
In a letter dated April 24th, 2017 titled Ref. LG/RD/1/2 signed by Secretary for Local Government and Rural Development, Kiswell Dakamau, which Nyasa Times has sourced, the council’s has been faulted for failing to submit progress reports on the upgraded roads.
Dakamau, in the letter directed to LCC’s Chief Executive Officer, Moza Zeleza, has also questioned the restrained relationship between the council and hired Supervising Consultant, Henderson and Partners who objected to quality of some of the upgraded roads.
“As you are aware, this ministry has been conducting monitoring visits to the City Roads Upgrading Programme in all the four (4) Cities in the Country including Lilongwe City Council. This is for purposes of groundtruthing to the periodic reports the Ministry has been requesting from the councils.
“Specifically for your city, the ministry has been requesting for reports from your office on the progress of the same on a number of occasions including at the time the Ministry learnt that the Supervising Consultant, Henderson and Partners, had withdrawn his services. In all these instances you provided assurance that your road projects were performing well,” Dakamau wrote in the letter.
The letter follows a road inspection the ministry conducted in the city on April 21st, 2017.
When contacted, LCC’s Chief Executive Officer, Moza Zeleza said was elusive and kept on saying he was in a meeting each time Nyasa Times called.
Dakamau noted that the council, on a number of occasions, provided the ministry with incorrect information in regards to progress reports on the upgraded roads.
“The Ministry is also of the view that your council did not professionally manage the issue of the Consulting Engineer to the point that he had to withdraw his services when works were still in progress.”
The Ministry further faulted the council for gross laxity in supervising both the consulting engineer and the contracted construction companies.
Dakamau has since advised the council to ensure that the consulting engineer has been reinstated with immediate effect so that that the works are professionally supervised, and that all roads noted to have been done in a substandard way should be rectified.
“In view of these developments, please be advised that this Ministry commence disciplinary action against your office for gross negligence of duty in due course in accordance with the frameworks governing your work. I should be grateful if the above will be brought to the attention of all your staff and concerned parties,” said Dakamau.
Lilongwe City Council was allocated K1.8 billion in the 2015/16 financial year out of which the actual funding was K1.2 billion and in 2016/17 financial year it was allocated K2.5 billion which was later revised to K2.175 billion to upgrade six roads.
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Lilongwe city is worse managed & has no future with the motives city management has. The new tarred road in area 49 behind Gullicer is the worst. Talk of Senti road, not finished at all. City yopweteketsa moyo ndi imeneyi of all cities in Mw. Go to the bus depot, you’ll cry for ur nation if you love it. Shame to the management of city & no wonder even their offices are not painted and have broken chairs at reception. Corruption have made them phychologicalky blind for sure. Something need to be done if what the Mimistry is saying is… Read more »
At first how did government award these companies?? do they inspect them before giving the contract to so called companies i dont blame these companies but those who award them to do the job that they can not manage to do it. Malawi goverment please some times you have to be serious enough when it comes to developments of this country we are lagging behind these roads were not surpose to be in cities, they have already started doing mentainance since the roads have develop potholes after 3months of construction so bad.
The truth be told this CEO is the worst in Lilongwe City Councils history
Go and see the quality of area 36-falls road done by mota-angil under the same programme… very nice that all ROADS done by plem construction
The ACB should investigate Lilongwe City Council for Grand Corruption. They demand kickbacks on projects. The Ministry of Local Government should investigate LLC for Gross Negligence and Corruption. A Lot of foreign investors are deliberately being frustrated by LLC and Malawi keeps on losing opportunities that would have transformed the city and the economy.
So other City Councils are providing good “toads” that residents are happy with?
When did councils start providing *toads*?
Poor headline
Hhhhm this is somehow a job well done for you Dakamau to have done the follow up on the roads. It’s a lot of monies mentioned here. I wondered at first, seeing the rubbishish work being done before they started drawing road markings on prima tar in which they were using house blooms/brooms. Now bwana KDakamau,how possible that your ministry and president is concentrating on one area on roads maintenance and leaving out the Salima— Nkhotakota—- Dwangwa road??????!!!## and yet our government is taking a lot of taxes from illovo ? Blantyre — chikwawa road was maintained because of Nchalo… Read more »
The Area 23 -Chipasula Road is one of the poorly upgraded road,the construction company has no equipment ,mostly it was human beings used to do the rest of the work.I would urge the Ministry to physically inspect this road for the to appreciate the quality of the work done so far.
Concerned Resident