The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has accused the Roads Authority of lying about completion of road grading works on roads in the Southern Region.
The rights body has said this in a letter to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) dated 8 September, 2020.
Last week, the Roads Authority published a notice about the completion of the grading of roads in the Southern Region.
The grading was for roads totaling 621 kilometres and the contracts were worth a total of K245 million. According to the Roads Authority, all grading contracts were completed.
But the HRDC conducted a preliminary investigation by asking chiefs in various districts and established that some roads were not graded.
The roads include Bangula to Mwabvi Game Reserve, Lundu to Chididi and Marka to Lurwe which are in Nsanje.
Others are Lengwe Turn/off to Dzikolatha and Chikwawa to Kapichira which are in Chikwawa.
“The Chiefs were emphatic that no work was done. The advert from the Roads Authority is puzzling and an insult to the taxpayers of this country. We question why Roads Authority should be spending money on falsehood,” reads part of the letter signed by HRDC chairperson Gift Trapence and other HRDC members.
The activists have since asked the ACB to commence investigations into the road grading contracts across the country as soon as possible and to update the nation when the investigations have started.
