Economist for M’mbelwa District Council John Mwambughi has urged Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to continue providing checks and balances in local authorities.
Mwambughi said CSOs’ oversight role helps enhance the Council’s performance.
He was speaking on Friday in Mzimba during the dissemination of Local Authority Performance Assessment (LAPA) results and the presentation of the 2024 Council budget to members of Civil Society Organisations.
He urged CSOs to take a leading role in following up on council plans to ensure they are fulfilled.
“Such meetings as this one are meant to engage Civil Society Organisations on what our performance is in the World Bank-funded governance to enable service delivery (Gesd) and other projects “, he said.
LAPA results are used as a determiner of how much a council is supposed to receive in the Governance to Enable Service Delivery (Gesd) project, and for us to be on our toes, we require CSOs to keep checking on how we perform on the ground.
Civil Society Organisation chairperson Christopher Melele said as CSO members, they attach great value to such interface meetings.
“These meetings should be held regularly and we are more than willing to continue providing the checks and balances to ensure that M’mbelwa District Council always come top in projects assessments of Gesd and others,” he said.
In the last Gesd 2023 assessment, Mzimba scored 66 percent and it’s on position 9.
