By SYLVIA MWEETWA? –
BUILDING materials meant for the construction of a community school in?Kabwe have gone missing.
The building materials were meant for the construction of a 1×4?classroom block at Mulungushi Community School.
Police have since arrested the project manager Alex Mutale and the?secretary Ronald Mukwaila to assist with investigations over the?disappearance of the building materials.
Kalonga Ward councillor, Knox Phiri in whose ward the school is supposed to?be built, and the district buildings officer at the provincial administration have also been implicated in the matter.
Kabwe District Commissioner Patrick Chishala has since directed the District Education Board (DEBS) to ensure that the matter is thoroughly investigated to bring the culprits to book.
Mr  Chishala,  who  made an impromptu visit  to the  school,  was shocked  to  find  that not much work had been carried out despite the Government  releasing the  K240,000 for the  project,  while K140,000 had  already been paid to the contractor.
Works done so far were unacceptable and that there was no justification for the delays.
The District Commissioner took to task the project manager, who was at pains to explain what was causing the delay.
It was  also  discovered that  only  seven of the 309 pockets  of cement  meant  for the  construction works, two pieces  of  timber  out of  the  175 pieces, were  found  in the  store house with no  proper  explanation over the iron sheets.
“I  will  not sit idle  and  watch  people  with  impunity deliberately  attempt  to delay  Government projects and  I want a proper  probe  into this  matter, ’’ Mr Chishala said.
In some cases, the Government had been accused of not fulfilling its promises and yet there were people whose interest was to delay such developmental programmes.