{"id":68818,"date":"2018-07-31T11:17:52","date_gmt":"2018-07-31T09:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=68818"},"modified":"2018-07-31T11:17:53","modified_gmt":"2018-07-31T09:17:53","slug":"k328-billion-housing-project-for-security-organs-flops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2018\/07\/31\/k328-billion-housing-project-for-security-organs-flops\/","title":{"rendered":"K328 billion housing project for security organs flops"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU, <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A CONTRIBUTOR: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The much-touted $450 million [approximately K328 billion] project to construct 10,000 modern houses for the government\u2019s four security agencies has flopped.<\/p>\n

In August 2016, the government announced that it had secured a loan from the Indian government for construction of modern houses for the Malawi Police Service (MPS), Malawi Defence Force (MDF), Malawi Prison Service and the Immigration Department.<\/p>\n

Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development was identified as implementer of the project while Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security was earmarked as the beneficiary of the project, which was scheduled to run for two years effective 2016.<\/p>\n

If implemented, the project would have addressed the problem of inadequate institutional houses thousands of the junior staff members in the agencies face.<\/p>\n

These junior staff are accommodating their families in locations away from their duty stations, which poses a serious threat to their lives.<\/p>\n

In light of this challenge, the government secured credit from the Indian government to construct 10,000 houses for security organs.<\/p>\n

But The Daily Times has gathered that the government has only constructed 15 houses.<\/p>\n

Both Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security, Cecilia Chazama, acknowledged yesterday that the project has not registered significant progress.<\/p>\n

Chazama said that the Treasury only released K610 million, out of which K435 million was used to build 15 houses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe houses were distributed as follows: five at National Police Headquarters, five at Area 47 site for Central Region Police Headquarters and at Zomba Police College. The 15 houses cost K29 million each,\u201d Chazama said.<\/p>\n

The minister added that K175 million was used for maintaining infrastructure. The minister did not explain how the remaining K115 million was spent.<\/p>\n

When reminded that maintenance of structures was not part of the project proposal, Chazama defended the move, saying \u201cit is important to appreciate that the old stock must be rehabilitated as most houses and offices are in dilapidated state so far\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are discussing with the Treasury for a substantial injection of funds to enable us carry out massive maintenance of our houses and offices. In addition to the 10,000 houses, government set aside K1 billion to build houses for the police. Preparations for commencement are almost complete following a visit by construction experts from India who visited and surveyed all areas where the houses will be built,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Lands, Housing and Urban Development Minister, Anna Kachikho \u2013 whose ministry was the implementer of the project \u2013 said she had not yet been served with any information regarding the project.<\/p>\n

But in an earlier interview, the ministry\u2019s spokesperson, Charles Vintulla, said the government had engaged an Indian contractor \u2013 Pratibha \u2013 who was expected to bring all structural materials from India to Malawi, adding that all the houses would be fabricated.<\/p>\n

He said the contractor would subcontract local Malawians.<\/p>\n

Vintulla said the government was in the process of identifying a contractor for the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment is in the process of identifying a contractor. As you know, [the construction of] 10,000 houses is a big project. The OPC [Office of the President and Cabinet] is handling some of the key elements in realising this project and the ministry will be advised shortly on how to implement it full throttle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last week, Vintulla maintained that progress has been made in implementing the project. But when asked about the number of the houses already finished and\/ or under construction, he said he was on leave.<\/p>\n

National Police spokesperson, James Kadadzera, refused to comment while his Immigration counterpart, Joseph Chauwa, said he needed more time to consult bosses before commenting on the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU, A CONTRIBUTOR: The much-touted $450 million [approximately K328 billion] project to construct 10,000 modern houses for the government\u2019s four security agencies has flopped. In August 2016, the government announced that it had secured a loan from the Indian government for construction of modern houses for the Malawi Police Service (MPS), Malawi Defence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":68822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68823,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68818\/revisions\/68823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}