This was disclosed by MANOBEC Management Consultant Darlington Matabwa, when Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Halima Daudi visited the projects sites on Tuesday to appreciate progress.

Construction of the Mzimba Stadium and the Mmbelwa District Council Office complex in Mzimba started in 2018 but up to now the two projects, expected to end in a year are yet to be finished 

Similar sentiments were echoed by Project Manager for DEC Construction Company Ellard Malonda, who are constructing the Mmbelwa district council office complex. 

"The challenges on this projects are many. The site investigations were not done in time and then the delayed payments. A project of this magnitude can't just run on a small amount of money, you definitely need enough money, so in the course of the project funds were coming in very late,” said Malonda.

However Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Halima Daudi said government will speed up payments to the contractors to complete the projects in time.

"I went to see the stadium under construction but the supervisors told us about funding that the progress is slow due to funding and here at the new council offices they have complained of the same funding so we going to follow up the issues with treasury because we want to these projects to finish as soon as possible,” said Daudi. 

But Daudi warned the two contractors against inflating figures to corruptly defraud government during payments 

"We don't want you to inflate payment figures, nobody should come here to tell you to corruptly defraud government,” said the minister 

The K1.8 billion Mmbelwa District Council Office complex will be completed by July next year while the K4.5 billion  Mzimba Stadium will be completed in March next year