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| National |
| Pac blasts lands bosses |
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by
George Ntonya, 10 May 2007
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08:08:25
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The Public Accounts Committee (Pac) of Parliament yesterday took a swipe at senior officials from the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Surveys, saying they are failing to do their job.
The committee has since demanded that the officials produce documentary evidence to prove that efforts were being made to address their weaknesses, particularly in collecting arrears from the country’s city assemblies.
Pac called Secretary for Lands Fletcher Zenengeya and his technical team to explain queries raised by the Auditor-General’s 2003/4 report.
The committee, chaired by Nkhata Bay South MP Aleke Banda, wanted the controlling officer to explain why financial statements for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Housing Treasury Fund for that year were not submitted for audit.
Pac also asked why the ministry has been unable to collect valuation fees amounting to K9.49 million from the Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu city assemblies, among other concerns.
Zenengeya admitted the three assemblies owed his ministry K9,494,315.31 but said attempts were made to recover the money.
He partly attributed the failure to laxity by officials at the ministry who “accepted lame excuses” from the city assemblies for failing to settle the outstanding debts.
Zenengeya said the ministry carried out valuation exercises for the city assemblies and sent them invoices for payment.
Pac also expressed concern that the ministry was unable to collect K13,4 million in rentals from people who occupy houses government built under what is called the UNDP Fund.
The houses are largely occupied by civil servants and members of the UN agencies working on government development projects. The revenue from the houses is supposed to be used for renovation or construction of additional units.
Zenengeya told the committee it has not been possible for the ministry to collect the rentals because some departments, like the Ministry of Agriculture, do the renovations on their own and never remit any money to the Lands Ministry which is mandated to collect rentals on behalf of government.
The PS pushed the blame to the Ministry of Finance for allowing some ministries to be collecting the rentals and using it for renovations on their own.
“To me this sounds that he [the controlling officer] has divorced himself from the responsibility of collecting the rentals,” said a Pac member, MP for Zomba Lisanjala Winston Chikalimba, who looked discontented with the explanation.
“Your powers have been usurped. What have you done then?” Queried Aleke.
Zenengeya, who said he has been secretary for the ministry for three months only, told the meeting that he opened dialogue with Treasury officials to address the matter.
The MPs said they would require documentary proof of such dialogue.
Earlier, Pac said they were also worried with the sprouting of unplanned trading centres around places where there are police road blocks such as Jenda in Mzimba and Zalewa in Neno.
Banda, who is the committee’s vice chair, said Malawi cannot afford to have haphazard infrastructural development because it has a lot of negative effects, which may lead to bulldozing of some structures in the long run.
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