Civil Societies Organizations (CSOs) in Phalombe have accused primary school headteachers of misusing Schools Implementing Grants (SIG).
The abuse of funds was revealed after a Budget Tracking Plan which CSOs did in ten primary schools in the district.
Speaking during an interface meeting, chairperson for Civil Society Coalition Louis Ng’oma explained that most of the headteachers in primary schools are sidelining the School Implementing Grant committees when planning and using the grants.
“Through our budget tracking plan we have found that most of the headteachers are disregarding the committees which were formed to run the program instead they are misusing the resources,” said Ng’oma.
He added that due to lack of supervision from District Education Manager’s office on the grant, headteachers are not using the money properly.
“For instance Mwanga Primary school misused funds of 2014-2015 as they bought bags of cement to renovate blocks but due to unaccountability of the headteachers when choosing contractors it ended in misunderstandings between headteacher and SIG committee. Due to the wrangle, the bags have not been used,” he said.
This development caused the school not to receive another grant in 2015 -2016 financial year yet the institution is facing a lot of problems that need to be solved using the grant.
The Phalombe CSOs also found that most of the schools in the district are misusing the money by finding cheaper contractors that construct substandard structures.
Commenting on the matter during the meeting, Phalombe District Education Manager Hendrex Likeke said the meeting was an eye opener to his office and he insisted that such headteachers will face the law.
“Our office will act on all the headteachers who misuse the grant,” Likeke said.
