Mutharika wants corruption probe into road construction tenders

Malawi President Peter Mutharika has ordered graft busting body, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to probe ward councillors who corruptly award road construction projects to their own companies or those of friends.

Mutharika said most of newly constructed roads in towns and cities are in dilapidated state just six months after they were rehabilitated.

“The roads are in bad in shape because of poor worksmanship. The councillors or their friends have no experience whatsoever in road construction.

“The honourable minister of Local Government should look into this, the ACB must investigate this thoroughly and bring to book the perpetrators,” said Mutharika.

He was speaking in Mulanje when he launched Malawi Rural Electrification Program (Marep).

“This has to stop. The government is wasting a lot of money rehabilitating the roads,”the Malawi leader said.

Some road projects in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu have stalled, others are taking unnecessarily long to complete while those that have been completed have, shortly after completion, started developing potholes, cracks and other problems.

Roads Fund Administration spokesperson Masauko Ngwaluko recently said as is the case with every road project in city road construction and reconstruction works, his organisation retains five per cent of respective contract sums so that they can be used to rectify defects on the roads.