Government Criticized for Spending over K400 Million on Billboards
Published on May 8, 2025 at 4:32 PM by Lisa Bandawe
Some group of civil servants are unhappy with the government for spending more than K400 million on billboards, while the country is facing economic hardships.
The money was collected from the government GESD fund and used to put up billboards in different districts. Civil society leaders, Silvester Namiwa from CDED and Willy Kambwandira from CSAT, said it is wrong for the government to spend so much money on billboards when hospitals do not have enough medicines and patients are being sent home.
However Kondwani Santhe who is the Executive Director of the National Local Government Finance Committee, defended the decision saying that councils are simple following section 42 of the local government act, which says they must share the information with the public.
Santhe explained that the billboards are meant to show people how councils are using development funds after some people complained that the funds were being misused.
According to the reports each billboard is costing at least K13 million to be set up.
