Phalombe DC told to leave

Phalombe district Councillors have told District Commissioner (DC) Harry Phiri and the acting Director of Planning and Development (DPD) Morson Magombo to leave the district council, Malawi24 can report.

According to information made available to this publication, the two have been told not to return to their offices when all the civil servants will be going back to work from a Christmas holiday.

It has been revealed that the Councillors held a meeting where among others they scrutinised the performance of Phiri and Magombo whom they alleged that have failed to perform their duties of helping to develop the underdeveloped district.

Damson Chiphaka who is representing the  councillors confirmed the development and he said it is not important to keep incompetent officers who are failing to serve people of Phalombe yet there is K85 million  in the District Development Fund (DDF) account.

“As the council we discussed a lot of developmental activities under DDF to be done where allocation was already done but since we had the full council meeting nothing on the ground has been done and our fear is that people we serve will see that we aren’t doing nothing,” said the Mpasa Ward Councillor.

The finance committee chairperson then revealed that the council has secretly sent back Local Development Fund (LDF) money amounting to K20 million which could have been used in other developmental activities.

“You are a witness that last fiscal year we sent back Mk6 million of LDF and now we are told that K20.05 million has been sent back, so what is good here keeping people who aren’t helping at all,” he said.

The councillors said they believe that the acting DPD whose position is Monitoring and Evaluation officer will respect the transfer given by local government ministry to Rumphi district council.

“When we heard that there is a transfer of Morson Magombo to Rumphi we were happy considering that he failed in Chiradzulu so too here and our friends in Rumphi should prove to us if we are the problem not him.

“It is our hope that by 5th January 2018 he will report at Rumphi district council because he wasn’t born in Phalombe, if he is resisting then he should choose another district not Phalombe,” added Chiphaka.

On why the DC should also move out of the district’s council, the councillors said Phiri has completely failed his duties as a controlling officer of the southern region located district.

“He has failed, as an overall in charge he was supposed to call the councillors and Members of Parliament before the money was sent back, for your own information in yesterday’s meeting he admitted the failure of the directors at the council,” said Chiphaka.

The councillors then concluded by asking government to give the council  people who can help in developing the district. They also added that the council is in need of a Director of Public Works (DPW).

In his reaction about the money, Magombo said that it is a matter of misunderstanding with the councillors since there is no way LDF money can be used for other developmental issues.

“LDF money is for the LDF projects and we couldn’t use it for other projects.

“As for the DDF yes that’s true but in a meeting which we had with them (Councillors) the DC has assured them that come January projects will commence and for your own information materials have started arriving,” he said in his response.

On the issue of DPW, Magombo said the said Fackson Chidzalo is not an Acting DPW as being said by Councillors since the DC has not appointed anyone but they are intending to use Engineers working at the district Agriculture office and Naminjiwa Community Technical College to hold the office.