The Ministry of Local Government says review of inter-governmental transfer formulae (IGFTF) is long overdue. The remarks were said by the Principal Secretary (Administration) for the Ministry Esmie Kainja (PhD) during the opening session of the consultation review meeting for the intergovernmental formulae session in Blantyre recently.

Kainja said there is public outcry of government transfer of financial resources to match the functions which have devolved to councils. In order to facilitate fiscal discentralisation the Malawi constitution provides a guide on how financial resources are to be granted to councils under section 149 sub-section 2 with a sole consideration to economic, geographical and demographic requirements.

She observed that the introduction of the IGFTF was an effort to strengthen the fiscal transfer system expected to compel government to respond to the need for transferring more resources to local authorities.

Kainja said from an initial K3billion in the 2005/6 fiscal year the size of the budgets had grown to more than K40billion per annum. She said the review would make the formulae efficient and equitable amongst many attributes asking participants to accord the exercise the seriousness it deserves.

In order to enhance financing for councils through government granting and to respond to functions which have develved under health, education, agriculture, gender etc there is a need to match the functions with financing so that councils can respond adequately to service demands.

The review will further address the gap which exists with the current formulae which only responded to two criteria requirements of economic and geographical and bring about balances and other social and economic factors like infrastructure, demographic, poverty levels, terrain amongst others.

The participants were drawn from representatives from; Ministries of Finance, Local Government, Health, Agriculture, Gender, Education; the NLGFC, Local Government Authorities, local governance experts and the media. Santhe further said 'once the formula is reviewed it shall be approved by Parliament according to the constitution, a process which is planned to be through by February 2022.