By Solister Mogha

Zomba, November 6, Mana: District Commissioner for Zomba, Reinghard Chavula has cautioned officers who fail to submit monthly activity reports after implementing their various activities of unspecified disciplinary action.

Chavula sounded the warning on Wednesday in Machinga during the second quarter review meeting for the Malawi Watershed Services Improvement Project (MWASIP).

She said she has noted with concern of a growing tendency of some officers delaying submission of their activity reports despite drawing funds for such activities.

"I feel it's high time we took some serious action over this growing behavior. It really doesn't make sense that months after implementing activities, officers should relax and fail to submit a report," she said.

Chavula said the immediate action would be to intensify performance appraisals and also change or transfer officers who are misbehaving.

"I have already started an appraisals exercise with directors and I expect them to do the same to their juniors. However, should I notice no change, I will be forced to do a reshuffle of activity managers," she said.

Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for Zomba District Council, Davie Sato concurred with the DC, saying it is always hard for officers to submit reports to the office.

"Seriously, it is getting out of hand, people have forgotten their responsibility of submitting reports and always wait for me to keep pushing them," Sato said.

Mwasip Programme Coordinator for Zomba, McKinley Dupu said delayed submission of reports was a big challenge at the council.

"I really don't understand why people take long to submit reports forgetting that it is only where activity reports are submitted when the council can request for more funds," Dupu said.

During the meeting, members agreed to offer their best for the betterment of the district and the nation at large.