NICE District Civic Education Officer (DCEO) for Mchinji and Ntchisi, Pilirani Emmanuel Banda, made the remarks on Thursday during a service charter consultation meeting, which NICE organized with funding from its traditional donor – European Union (EU).
The meeting uncovered a number of governance issues that affect the development of the district.
Among others, it was noted that the heads of departments are not sharing and/or popularizing service charters to the rights-holders thereby depriving citizens the right to follow and scrutinize the implementation of various development projects.
Banda described this as a worrisome development and a barrier to decentralization processes.
“My expectation was that developing these documents, the sectors were supposed to engage service users for their inputs. Thereafter, agreements should have been made between the two parties,” he said.
Heads of departments assured NICE and others stakeholders of their commitment to facilitating and promoting decentralization processes by distributing service charters to residents of the district.