A 36-year-old primary school head teacher, Hanock Kamanga, and his accomplice, Shibisa Chipeta 47, the school committee chairperson have been arrested in Nkhata Bay for allegedly squandering money amounting to K11, 000,000.00 (Eleven million kwacha) meant for construction of a head-teacher’s house.
According to report filed at the police station, the government through the Ministry of Education, introduced construction of houses for head-teachers in schools that are in the most rural areas.
Mtazi Primary School where Kamanga works is one of the selected schools that the government through the School Improvement Plan strategy allocated K17, 000,000 (Seventeen million kwacha) in October 2021 for the school to have a good head-teacher’s house.
The head-teacher was chairing the process of handling the money from the bank to where the project was being carried out.
Further reports indicate that in the first place, the project monitoring In-Charge was satisfied with how it started until later when he realised that the project stalled.
When the head-teacher was quizzed, he failed to give tangible reasons until he was forced to go to the bank on September 15, 2022 to check transactions.
It was then realised that apart from the notable K5, 000,000 (Five million kwacha) that was withdrawn earlier in March, 2022 when the project was just starting, the head-teacher in conjunction with the school committee chairperson, was making further withdrawals without the knowledge of officials at the district’s education office until they squandered all the money.
When police interrogated the two at the police station, the head-teacher accepted to have hidden K8, 000,000 (Eight million kwacha) at the pit in the bush within the school yard. Unfortunately, he failed to locate the place to the investigating team. Following this, Kamanga was charged with theft by servant contrary to section 283 of the Penal Code.
Meanwhile, the suspects have been remanded at Nkhata Bay Prison after appearing before court on September 19, 2022 where they denied the charge.
Kamanga hails from Kapalapata Village in Traditional Authority Timbiri while Chipeta is from Chinsana Village Traditional Authority Zilakoma, both in Nkhata Bay District.