THE UPND corruption in the road sector is now manifesting in the washing away of roads by rains.

In a statement today, UPND vice-president for administration Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba demanded that RDA and NRFA be audited.

“We believe public funds have been abused. And Lungu himself pointed out that there was massive corruption in the road construction sector. As if that is not enough, NRFA raised over K800m through toll gates from 2012 to 2015 but have not told the nation how they have used that money,” GBM stated.

“As UPND, we demand that Road Development Agency and National Road Fund Agency be seriously audited in view of the concerns being raised by media houses on the quality of roads being washed away anyhow by even minimal rains and some getting mangled due to poor workmanship.”

He stated that as long as State House was involved in the road sector, money would continue to be misapplied.

“All this is happening at Road Development Agency which is currently directly answerable to State house and Lungu himself must be answerable to this national scandal which he boasted as unprecedented developments. As UPND, we warned about the dangers of having such massive projects under State House as they cannot be properly supervised and audited,” GBM noted.

“We are of the view that if such a trend continues, money meant for the maintenance of roads will continue to be misapplied.”

He wondered why most roads built by the PF were already damaged whilst those constructed during UNIP and MMD regimes were still intact.

“Some of the roads constructed during UNIP and MMD era leadership are still intact due to good workmanship .But PF roads built recently out of corruption, with no consideration of the terrain, climate and other aspects are already damaged with some being mended,” stated GBM.

“The Eurobond and other loans that paid for these roads, as with all PF projects, is still accumulating interest and our children are debt burdened even before they are born and that will make them colonized for life.”

Last week, part of the Maamba-Batoka road was washed away by heavy rains leaving a seven-meter-wide ditch, cutting the area off from the rest of Southern Province.

And yesterday, a newly tarred Luangwa D145 main road connecting the district to the Great East Road developed massive cracks.