The Pan African Civic Educators Network (Pacenet) on Friday drilled locals in Luchenza Municipality in Thyolo on public expenditure tracking in order to empower them.
This follows protracted disagreements in which locals marched against their Chief Executive Officer over allegations that he abused public funds.
Stanley Chuthi who is the Chief Planning and Economic Services Analyst at the National Local Government Finance Committee was the lead facilitator at the workshop that drew participants from all eight wards in Luchenza Municipality.
Chuthi disclosed that the aim of the workshop was to enhance locals’ participation in good governance at the council and how they could understand the council’s budget.
“We want to promote transparency and accountability in all councils. The local people at the grassroots should participate in the management of their councils and they can achieve that if they are equipped with necessary skills for them to be able to track how public funds are being used”, he said.
One of the participants at the workshop, Melena William, from Kapiri Ward described the training as useful in that it has imparted in them skills to monitor how public resources are being utilized in the local government set up.
She narrated how a certain contractor (name withheld) alienated the local structures in the construction of a class block at a primary school and the result was shoddy work that has not lasted longer after the contractor used sub-standards materials.
“We have been taught here to own all projects and how we can understand council’s budgets in order to follow up on how funds are being used in the implementation of various projects. Never ever shall we allow a project to be undertaken without our participation”, said William.
Steven Duwa, Pacenet Executive Director, said the public expenditure tracking programme is a follow up on the social contract that they initiated in 2014 prior to the tripartite elections to ensure that those seeking public office are bound to the promises they make to people.
“We have brought members from the transparency and accountability clubs here in Luchenza to orient them on what public expenditure trucking is all about, how it is supposed to be done and what is their role,” said Duwa.
Pacenet organised the workshop in partnership with the Department for International Development (Dfid) and National Democratic Alliance (NDI) to promote transparency and accountability in the management of local government structures.
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