The Roads Fund Administration (RFA) has bemoaned Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority’s (Mera) failure to remit road levies, saying it is affecting its capacity to fund the maintenance of roads, including the M1.
Speaking yesterday when the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament inspected M1 maintenance works on the stretch between Chingeni and Zalewa funded by tollgates collections, RFA chief executive officer Stewart Malata said the administration is not accessing the road levy to fund road maintenance works.
He was responding to concerns by the Roads Authority (RA) that the RFA had not given a go-ahead for two contracts for the rehabilitation of the M1.
The RFA CEO said the money collected from tollgates was only enough to cover rehabilitation of six kilometres of the road.
Said Malata: “The Roads Fund Administration has collected K9.5 billion, but the actual money that can be used for maintenance is K8.4 billion as the other amount is going to other expenses.
“The money that we have collected from the tollgates is not enough to fund other sections so we planned to use the road levy.”
As of March 2024, RFA was owed K104 billion in road levies.
On his part, RFA board chairperson Mathews Chikankheni said they asked RA to put on hold two contracts for the rehabilitation of the M1 because the RFA is still not receiving the road levy, which is its main source of funding.
He observed that there is underperformance in the K6.3 billion project.
“The delay has affected the value of the money and scope of works. If the contractor executed works on time, RFA would have saved money. Due to devaluations, the kilometres to be worked on were reduced from 10 kilometres to six kilometres,” said Chikankheni.
RA director of maintenance Florence Ndenguma said there are so many sections of the M1 that are in poor state and need rehabilitation.
She said: “The state of the road will worsen when the rains come. This road is not in good shape. Members [of Parliament] have already lamented how bad it was before patching was done.”
On the maintenance of the Chingeni-Zalewa section, Ndenguma conceded that the project has registered little progress despite the contract period elapsing.
PAC chairperson Mark Botomani has since said the committee wants to see progress in maintenance of the M1.
“People want to see that they are benefiting from the toll fees by having the road maintained,” he said.
We could not reach Mera chief executive officer Henry Kachaje for comment on non-remittance of road levies, but in a recent interview, he said the funds were being remitted in small amounts.
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