Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MoLRD) has advised residents in town, district and city councils to be paying fees and charges, among other fees to enhance smooth operation of the councils.

 Minister responsible for the ministry, Dr. Ben Phiri was speaking Wednesday in Mzuzu when he interacted with district commissioners of all district councils in the north.

Phiri said his ministry is aware of the challenges which councils face in delivering services and paying wages for their employees and that the ministry is doing everything possible to develop strategies which can assist in addressing such challenges.

“Since the adoption of decentralization, most of the central government responsibilities were devolved to local councils and this calls for the need of adequate financial resources to march with the responsibilities,” said Phiri.

He said some of the challenges include inadequate capacity in different fields and resource mobilization.

“As a ministry we believe that are responsible for spearheading as well as advising councils of best practices, so we assisting the councils to deal with some the challenges and have registered some improvement in council though there are some challenges here and there,” he said.

He said the meeting which was organised by National Local Government Finance Committee aimed at creating a platform through which they share experiences, challenges and how to deal with them.

Commenting on the meeting, District Commissioner (DC) for Nkhata Bay, Rodney Simwaka said the meeting was very relevant to the DCs because it enhance their managerial skills for them to run the councils effectively.

“As managers and heads of public institutions we must have skills to better serve the councils and provide services as expected by people,” said Simwaka.

He said, people have high expectations from councils as such the local authorities need to jack up to meet the expectations by making good use of resources for the benefit of the people.

Story Credits: George Bulombola