Government has so far only released about 18 per cent of the funds allocated to the Lands Department in the 2015 National Budget this year.
Lands Officer, Patrick Mukuka says that from an allocation of 217,552 Kwacha, government has released 40,420 Kwacha, which has gone towards Land Administration, payment of bills and other office operations.
Speaking during a radio programme, dubbed Budget Tracking on Breeze FM this morning, Mr. Mukuka indicated that the delay to release the money has affected implementation of some activities.
He revealed that since the department has not been able to travel to some districts for land administration matters, some councils like Lundazi and Petauke have had to sponsor their trips.
And Mr. Mukuka revealed that the department has a backlog of 3, 000 applications for title deeds that need to be processed.
Mr. Mukuka also indicated that the Lands Department has so far collected about 483,000 in revenue from land rates from all the districts in Eastern Province.
Meanwhile Mr. Mukuka says that it is illegal to sell land, which is not on title.
He also indicated that the Lands Department is still investigating a matter, where it has been accused of issuing title deeds to people that have built on land belonging to Chipata Trades Training Institute.