By Pemphero Malimba:
The government is yet to allocate plots to developers at Area 54 in Lilongwe, Dunduzu in Mzuzu and Matindi in Blantyre after identifying the land for development several years ago, The Daily Times has established.
Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Principal Secretary Bennett Nkasala told Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (Pac) on Wednesday that delays in compensating residents had prevented the ministry from allocating the plots.
“The land we are talking about is comprised of people’s gardens, people’s farmland and there are even some houses, so we could not just chase out the people without compensating them.
“Because we failed to pay compensation, this meant we could not proceed with plot allocations and as a result we missed the target,” Nkasala said.
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The ministry had targeted to collect K4 billion in revenue during the 2022-23 financial year but collected about K1 billion, resulting in an audit query.
Nkasala said the ministry was engaging the Ministry of Finance to secure funds for compensation.
During the meeting, Pac referred the ministry back for further reporting on the audit query after noting that it had not submitted written supplementary information before the meeting.
Pac chairperson Steven Malondera said the committee did not have sufficient evidence to retire the query.
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“The audit query was premised on the fact that it was budgeted for and they had anticipated that kind of collection but in this case, it was never achieved, so we have also put it for further reporting,” he said.
Meanwhile, Area 54 concerned citizens chairperson Biton Thuyathuya said the government had paid K2.2 billion to some affected residents.
“Although we have been engaging the government on the matter, nothing has come out for the rest of the payment,” Thuyathuya said.
In March last year, then Minister of Lands Deus Gumba told Parliament that the government needed K9 billion to compensate residents of Area 54, where 200 hectares had been identified.
He also said K3 billion was needed to compensate residents of Dunduzu, where about 80 hectares had been identified.
