By Our Reporter
Ministry of Local Government has asked the Local Authorities in the country to introduce a minimum package of designed structures so that they have improved and high quality work.
Deputy Minister of Local Government Halima Daud said this on Tuesday in Nsanje as she supervised projects that are implemented under Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) and District Development Fund (DDF) projects in the district.
She said usually, the councils provide incomplete set of structures that leave the beneficiaries unsatisfied with the development.
“There have been several cases where we have for instance, a school block constructed without sanitary facilities, water and electricity, the beneficiaries usually request for the remaining developments and are thirsty for more developments. Let us have a way of putting all things in order so that we construct meaningful developments,” she said.
She asked the councils to work extra hard so that they are allocated more resourced as GESD is a performance based grant.
“I am convinced that the projects I have visited look beautiful and strong. I request that councils intensify on supervision and monitoring so that the standards are maintained,” said Daud.
GESD Coordinator Charles Chunga asked the political leaders to have time to discuss and settle for real priority projects that are of prime importance to the whole district rather than sharing finances for smaller projects so that each constituency benefits at once.
“GESD project is for big meaningful projects in councils. May I request the political leaders to settle for big projects and cover all the constituencies in the five years we have for the world bank Grant.
“Council members should also know that World Bank is willing to extend the project if we work hard to convince them that we really have the capacity,” he said.
The Deputy Minster visited the construction of Chimombo health post, Chimombo Health post staff house, Tengani Police Unit, Tengani Market and Senior Chief Malemia’s house.
GESD is a five-year Government of Malawi project implemented by the Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Finance and National Local Government Finance Committee with funding from the World Bank.