By Maston Kaiya , MANA
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) says monitoring and evaluation of community development projects will play a big role in reducing corruption in local councils across the country.
ACB’s Senior Public Education Officer, Catherine Nkhoma made the remarks on Thursday during a Social Accountability Training workshop for chairpersons of Area Development Committees (ADCs) from traditional authorities Makwangwala and Ganya and Anti-Corruption clubs in Ntcheu.
Nkhoma said the fight against corruption is the responsibility of all stakeholders and that the country cannot realise meaningful progress if the fight is left to ACB alone.
On that note, Nkhoma urged all the participants to take a leading role in development projects in their communities for easy monitoring and evaluation.
“ADCs and Anti-Corruption clubs are like middlemen for projects in the local councils.
“Presently, most of them are not trained, so we are going across the country to train them on how to monitor and evaluate development projects in their communities.
“When they know how to monitor, corruption is most likely going to reduce,” said Nkhoma.
Nkhoma highlighted that corruption is evil and urged participants not only to resist but also report such cases.
National Initiative for Civic Education Officer (NICE), Emmanuel Banda said the meeting had come at the right time when the ADCs have commenced their duties.
“The training is very important and has come at the right time because it will assist the members in monitoring and evaluation of the projects,” he said.
Vice Chairperson for Upper Makwangwala ADC, Steven Gongonya commended the training and assured people that he would use and share the knowledge, skills and techniques learnt.
“As ADC members, we have a role to play in all developments taking place in our areas. When we go back, I will mobilise my fellow members and share with them what I have learnt,” said Gongonya.
