By Deogratias Mmana:
Government has interdicted some Ministry of Lands officials over corruption and dubious practices in land-related deals.
Both Minister of Lands Deus Gumba and Principal Secretary for the ministry Davie Chilonga have confirmed but they have kept tight lid on the names and numbers of those interdicted.
Gumba said his ministry will not shield any officer because it has taken a direction to sanitise the system.
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He said this on the sidelines of Surveyors Institute of Malawi annual general conference that ran from Thursday to yesterday in Salima.
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On his part, Chilonga said cases of some officials are being handled by the Civil Service Commission and may result to dismissals.
“The ministry has embarked on stamping out corruption, hence any information leading to identification of any perpetrator of such deals shall be greatly appreciated,” Chilonga said.
He has since asked the Surveyors Institute of Malawi (SIM) to sanitise the profession.
“We do not want issues of bogus valuations, unrealistic inflating of construction project costs and signing of fake or survey maps that you have not been involved in,” Chilonga said.
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He added: “We request that SIM should help to ensure there is integrity amongst the members and the professionals when discharging duties.”
SIM president Martin Chimangeni also said the organisation has had several cases of officers implicated in cases of land management malpractices.
He said the cases were reported to various institutions for redress.
“These matters have been reported to the Architects and Quantity Surveyors board and other regulatory platforms such as the National Construction and Industry Council.
“I may not be preemptive on the number of cases we have handled in the year but there have been issues we have been handling and sitting in disciplinary sessions,” Chimangeni said.
He said SIM has since adopted a new constitution and is awaiting the gazetting of its code of ethics and conduct.
The interdictions and suspensions in the Ministry of Lands come barely a week after we reported that the police had arrested some lands officials who were involved in a syndicate of selling estates and land title deeds by forgery.
They were allegedly preparing such fake title deeds or lease documents when the genuine title deeds had already been registered at the respective land registry or deed registry in the name of the genuine owner.
In a recent case, an official from the Ministry of Lands, through agents, allegedly defrauded owner of Chikho Hotels, Selemani Chikho, of over K40 million in property that belonged to an already existing owner in Area 46.
According to Chikho, the officials used someone’s identity cards and presented fake documents prepared by the Ministry of Lands.
The theme for the conference was ‘The role of surveyors in smart cities development: Key feature towards Malawi 2063 agenda’.
According to Gumba, the development of smart cities requires thorough feasibility studies and meticulous infrastructure planning which are areas of expertise for the real estate and quantity surveying professionals.
He said professionals under his ministry bear a significant responsibility of overseeing the construction and management of landed property and infrastructure which are vital contributors to the country’s economy.
“Our role is crucial in shaping the physical landscape of our nation,” Gumba said.
