CCJP CALLS FOR TRANSPARENCY ON PROJECT FUNDS AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC

By Wezi Mwangonde                

The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) has asked Members of Parliament and Councilors in the country to be open and responsible whenever they are using government funds despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

George Chiusiwa

Speaking in an interview with our reporter, CCJP Good Governance Programs Coordinator in the country George Chiusiwa says MPs and councilors in all councils should keep in the mind that they are ambassadors of development in their areas hence they should refrain from corruption and other malpractices that can retard development.

Chiusiwa said it is very vital that people in the community should be able to trace how funds are being used through their Area and Village Development Committees (ADCs and VDCs) as it is a great monitoring tool.

“MPs and councilors should find strategies of reaching out to community members so that they should be aware of how project funds are spent as the country is hit with COVID-19 pandemic,” said Chiusiwa.

He said during times of the pandemic people in power tend to misuse funds in the name of emergency response, but in real sense they just pin the cash in their pockets leaving the community behind.

Therefore, he said it is so important that Malawians should be the primary beneficiaries of all the COVID-19 response and other funding at large.

“A lot of people are complaining on how COVID-19 funds are being misused in many councils in the country, which means no proper interventions are being done on the ground,“ he complained.