The auditor general’s report has continued to reveal misapplication of public funds by some government departments in Eastern Province.
The Civil Society for Poverty Reduction, CSPR, in Eastern province says more than 1.6 billion Kwacha meant for water development programmes was misappropriated by Provincial Water Affairs.
CSPR Provincial Coordinator, Maxwell Nkhoma says the revelation in the Auditor General’s report indicates that as a result of this misapplication, 18 boreholes which were expected to be drilled in rural areas have not been done.
In a statement availed to Breeze News, Mr. Nkhoma explains that in June 2011, Eastern Province Water Affairs Department received 1.4 billion Kwacha for the construction of Munduwi Dam in Chipata.
Mr. Nkhoma says the works which were done by the local community and supervised by Water Affairs had no receipts in respect of building materials amounting to more than 700 million Kwacha.
He further say a physical inspection at the dam revealed that the 1.4 billion Kwacha was spent without finishing the works adding that by November, 2012 , the dam was not functional.
Mr. Nkhoma says that CSPR is finding it extremely hard to understand how such huge sums of money meant for water development in the province could be misapplied by technocrats.
He says that worse still a further scrutiny revealed that the Ministry of Energy and Water Development in the province had no strategic plan.
And the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in Mambwe district received more than 192 million Kwacha for rehabilitation of Kakumbi Tsetse Research Centre but the centre had not been worked on by November, 2012.