Mangochi residents take council to task on local revenue
Concerned citizens have taken Mangochi Town Council to task over how local revenue is being used as they claim that revenue collected does not match the services being rendered.
Speaking during a stakeholders meeting on Wednesday at Mangochi Town Council, Secretary for Mangochi Concerned Citizens Andrew Ngulube said people doing business at the central business district were not satisfied with the services being offered.
Ngulube alleged that people of Mangochi are made to pay revenue on a number of activities they undertake but nothing on the ground translates to their paying the money.
“As Mangochi concerned citizens, through the Chairman of Mangochi Town Council, we are demanding that the council should give us written reports and general receipts (GRs) so that we can see with our own eyes how much the town generates from local revenue collection,” Ngulube said.
“We are also demanding that the council should give us written reports and documents on how the revenue collected since 2014 has been used,” he challenged.
Reacting to the concerns, Mangochi Town Council Chairperson Ibrahim Kacheya said what Mangochi Concerned Citizens were demanding cannot happen because the council cannot produce GRs which are only necessary during internal and external audit exercises.
“We can just give you reports not GRs because you are not mandated to audit the council’s accounts,” Kacheya pointed out.
Speaking in an interview with Malawi News Agency (MANA) after the meeting which was curtailed to resume on March 24, 2017 for further discussions, Ngulube said the group will still stick to their demands to see the council’s GRs for local revenue collection.
He said they were demanding to see the financial documents as one way of instilling transparency and accountability in the running of businesses at the council.
“If the council still refuses our demand then we will take another action,” he said, adding that the next course of action would be to announce to every citizen of Mangochi to stop paying taxes to the council.
Pamene Kamuzu amati multiparty ndi nkhondo…..mmaganiza nkhondo ya zipolopolo. Kukhala mtsogoleri lero ndi nyasi zeni zeni ndi a Nguluwe omwe kumaoneka anzeru lol.