Financially struggling Northern Region Water Board (NRWB) has justified an estimated K13 million expenditure on logistics for a meeting to shortlist candidates for the position of its chief executive officer (CEO).

A memo from board’s director of human resources and administration office to the acting CEO seeking approval of the budget for the two-day meeting in Nkhata Bay shows that the event will start tomorrow.

Mwenifumbo: To meet this standard, it is inevitable to avoid such a cost

But in an interview last evening, NRWB board chairperson Frank Mwenifumbo justified the 15-member delegation, saying it was critical in ensuring transparency in the process.

“The budget for the exercise is to support the processes that will ensure transparency, equity and inclusive. To meet this standard, it is inevitable to avoid such a cost,” he said yesterday.

Mwenifumbo further said that the budget was on the lower side considering that they did not include other board members.

“As a matter of fact, the budget would have been much higher if the entire board was allowed to participate in the exercise. We, therefore, had to leave out [50 percent] of the directors of the board in order to bring the cost down,” he said.

The government has been advocating for reduced expenditure among its ministries, departments and agencies as the nation tries to swivel from its economic turmoil worsened by natural disasters and disease outbreaks.

On whether the NRWB is justified to spend the stated amount, the comptroller for Statutory Corporations Peter Simbani said he was not aware about the budget details.

He, however, acknowledged knowing that the board will conduct shortlisting of the CEO interviews to find a replacement for the retired Titus Mtegha.

Simbani said: “I need to have the budget and see what is there. Otherwise, I am hearing all this from you. What I know is that we are planning to conduct a shortlisting exercise and in terms of the other details I don’t have.”

The list has five NRWB board members, namely Mwenefumbo, Florence Nthakomwa, Ngabanira Chatata, James Mwaisemba and Reverend Chipofya.

Others are from the Statutory Corporation department, NRWB staff, Department of Human Resource Management and Development and the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, according to the document.

Meanwhile, the Public Affairs Committee of Parliament chairperson Mark Botomani has said they will probe the matter.

Government recently approved average 50 percent water tariffs hike for the water boards amid an outcry that there were financially struggling resulting in poor service delivery.

Minister of Information and Digitisation Moses Kunkuyu last month said that NRWB made K13.8 billion loss between 2020 and 2022.

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