BINGA South legislator Fanuel Cumanzala (CCC) has claimed that nepotism and corruption are rocking the rural district council (RDC), leading to employees going for the whole year without getting their salaries.
Cumanzala told Southern Eye that the local authority has become a family business, with seniors recruiting their relatives.
He said corruption levels had reached alarming levels at Binga Rural District Council, with officers engaging their children.
The legislator has also bemoaned council’s failure to pay salaries for close to a year.
“To make matters worse, employees at Binga Rural District Council have not been paid for more than a year now, which is a shame for a rural district council endowed with various revenue-generating resources or opportunities. The Binga Rural District councillors have not been paid their monthly allowances for the past eight months,” Cumanzala said.
“Binga Rural District Council has been a shining star in service provision to poor communities. For instance, Campfire programmes are now being run like a personal family business, with zero transparency and accountability as picked out by the adverse 2018 audit which has not been presented to the full council meeting to date.”
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However, Binga RDC chief executive Joshua Muzamba has dismissed the allegations.
“I am not aware of that, I do not know what you are talking about. I am driving so I can’t respond to your allegations right now,” he said.
According to a 2018 police statement, a request for auditing of Binga RDC books was made and the Criminal Investigation Department investigated cases of theft of trust property involving Naison Siamuloba and Lovemore Siamuyi employees at the rural district council.
Charges a rose after CID Binga was tipped that some council employees were under-receipting cash received from council clients, thereby defrauding the local authority.
Initial investigations revealed that, indeed, the accused persons were understating figures.
Indications were that council chief executive was approached on the issue and he said he would handle the issue internally.