Nkhotakota council chairperson has admitted that an 18 months period which the council members have spent without meeting has contributed to poor supervision and performance of development projects in the district.
The council chairperson Councilor Thomas Kasache said this Tuesday as a response after nullifying Education as well as District Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee (DANRC) reports which he said were presented prematurely.
He also observed that a number of issues that were tabled in the meeting had not been fully discussed by members of relevant committees.
One of the burning issues arose when members presented different views on whether they were responsible for sending two employees who are currently employed by central government for further education or not.
During a human resource report presentation by the service committee chairperson, Edward Chigulu, people had mixed reactions on whether Director of Administration who heads the Human Resource Department at the council, Geoffrey Mkandawire and Mathias Makuti, an accountant were to be sent to school on the council’s pocket.
While others thought it was viable to send the duo for courses to upgrade their studies to Malawi Institute of Management (MIM) and Malawi College of Accountancy (MCA) respectively, some members maintained that it was the responsibility of the central government to send its employees for upgrading.
Member of Parliament for Nkhotakota South East, Makowa Mwale advised that much as upgrading for the staff was important, it was high time the council analysed the priorities by addressing issues accordingly.
“Currently the council is in financial crisis, why don’t we resolve such issue first and implement the rest later?” he suggested.
But some council members like Chief Mwansambo highlighted that it was very important to send the members of staff to school for upgrading because that was just a way to help the council secretariat perform accordingly. They also said that the trainings meant the council was responding positively to decentralization policy.
Kasache during sideline interviews of the full council meeting, emphasized that the council is in financial crisis therefore releasing MK5.6m at the time for the two could be a big blow to the local government.
He also lamented lack of communication among technocrats and council members saying that most of the issues tabled in the meeting were not a true reflection of what was on the ground.
“For instance, most of us were wondering why the issue of school fees was coming in because I believe we were supposed to discuss such issues at length before bringing them to the meeting for the presentations. I feel the issues were presented prematurely,” he said.
Kasache then asked all committees to meet and supervise all the projects in preparation for another council meeting in the next quarter.
Nkhotakota full council members last met in 2016 and have failed to meet ever since due to what they call financial crisis. According to Kasache full council members are required to meet once every quarter. Source-Malawi News Ageny (MANA)
