THE National Planning Commission says the Budget Statement as read by Minister of Finance, Hon. Felix Mlusu is ‘a very commendable attempt by the Minister in aligning the budget to the Malawi 2063 agenda which defines Malawian’s aspirations’.

In a statement released by the NPC, its Director General Dr. Thomas Munthali, the NPC says the Minister showed government’s commitment to the vision through constant ‘reference to the various components of the budget linking to MW2063 pillars and enablers and was specific on which ones’.

In the statement, Munthali also credited the Minister for addressing what he called, ‘the President’s State of the Nation near- term priorities of wealth creation, job creation and food security’. The NPC says while the allocation to the development budget remains low, it has doubled to around 10% if you add the K1trillion local development bond.

The NPC called then on members of parliament to assess the budget’s ability to balance between economic and social sectors. In the budget statement the Finance Minister also hinted at government financing 15 major development projects which have received major commendations from the NPC for government’s commitment to see through continuing or new projects of national importance even if began by the previous regime.

 The NPC Director General then calls on Malawians to own the dream and take active part in transforming the country.

‘The real movers of our development agenda, however, beyond the implementing MDA’s and supporting non – state actors, is the hardworking Malawian. Munthali says national output that needs to be shared is a collection of ‘individual citizen’s contributions. If we work hard and contribute more, Government will have more to finance our social – economic needs’.

In the budget statement, Mlusu said the total revenues and grants for the 2021-22 Financial Year (FY) are estimated at K1,271.26 billion (12 percent of nominal GDP) comprising K1,100.95 billion in domestic revenues and K170.31 billion in grants.

The projection is premised on tax revenues at 82%, other revenues at 4.5% and grants from development partners at 13.4%. In the budget, rural development has been allocated K69.8 billion, K23.3 billion for construction of city roads, K7.7 billion for Constituency Development Fund, K3.4 billion for District Development Fund and K2.8 billion for construction of water structures which includes boreholes.

Ministry of Local Government on Friday recognised councils that performed well in the Local Authority Performance Assessment (LAPA) exercises by allowing them to tap more resources from Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) project.

GESD is a five year project which is being financed by the World Bank to the tune of US$100 Million to strengthen council’s institutional performance, responsiveness to citizens and management of resources for services delivery.

For instance, Balaka district council received K56 million which is 25% whilst Chiradzulu only got MK38 million representing 0.20 % for being the best and poorly performing local authorities in the 2019/2020 assessment respectively.

Speaking during the dissemination of LAPA results in Liwonde, Deputy Director for Local Government Services Douglas Mkweta said the results of the assessment translate into money to councils.

He said the project is incentivising performance of the service delivery of councils hence the best performing council gets more money than others.

 “This year is the first year we are transferring money from the project to add and complement to the district development fund.

Every council will have a uniform formulas they will receive or would have received but there is also money for grabs for councils that do well,” he explained

He added that money for council that performed badly will be taken from them and give to the best performing local authorities.      

He said the dissemination meeting was mainly aimed at explaining the formula the ministry used to allocate resources to councils.

Chairperson for Balaka District Council Michael Chauluka said he was very excited with the money the district received from the ministry.

He said the money will be used to enhance service delivery by, among others, construct ridges, rehabilitate markets and pay direct staff.

“In 2019, we were at number 17 and I was not happy with the results. When I was elected as chairperson of the council on 29^th June 2020, I encouraged my fellow councillors, Members of Parliament and chiefs to prioritise projects that are in our District Development Plan,” he said.

The meeting was attended by the Directors of Planning and Development, Directors of Finance and council chairpersons for seven councils. These are: Mwanza, Zomba, Phalombe,  Blantyre,  Balaka, Ntcheu and Salima. A similar exercise will take place in Mzuzu and Blantyre on 4^th May 2021.

Ministry of local government conducted the assessment in all 28 councils for 2019/2020 financial year from 30^th November to 18 December last year.

Areas of assessment, among others, include procurement management, improvements in health and education, mobilisation of locally generated resources and improvement in access of information. 

Story Credits : Patrick Ndawala

The National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) says time is over for financial recklessness, abuse, plunder and pilferage in the local authorities.

The NLGFC’s Executive Director Mr. Alifeyo Banda said this following the arrest by the Fiscal Police of two accounts officers on suspicion of theft and abuse of funds by public servants at Mchinji District Council.

‘It was observed that some Accounts Personnel were duplicating payments in the Local Authorities - Integrated Financial Management Information System (LA - IFMIS) and concealing the payments by deleting the transactions and processing these payments without any relevant documentation. The council was not doing bank reconciliations and was not submitting financial reports contrary to the Public Finance Management Act and the Local Government Act’, said Banda.

Banda said, ‘upon NLGFC technical  financial review of the council LA-IFMIS,  the bank statements and paid cheque images at the bank, it came out that the payments had gone through and also showed whose names the cheques were in’.

In the syndicate, over MK40million is suspected to have been misappropriated.

The financial review undertaken by the NLGFC also indicates that there were several suspected cases of forgery as well as high possibility of more rot.

Meanwhile, the NLGFC as per its functions has  referred the issue to the National Audit Office for a forensic audit on top of the current legal process in the court of law.

A family of nine watched in disbelief as their two-acre garden got eaten away by a raging run off in one rainy season leaving the subsistence dependent farming household grappling for farm land for over five years. This family along with others, begun to grow food on rented and unproductive land for survival.  They were unable to secure or buy new land of their own.

Poor land management practices such as reckless cutting down of trees, overgrazing and cultivation on steep slopes and marginal plots led to widespread gully formation in Balaka District.

The people of Chitalo Village, Traditional Authority Amidu suffered severe effects of gully erosion creating land degradation and disruption of transport systems. Further, there had been an acute shortage of suitable farm land.

 “The gullies shook the very core of our livelihoods. We observed helplessly when the gullies transformed our once productive farming land into ravines,” says Anita Mendulo, a resident in Chitalo village. She adds that the gullies cut off some roads effectively throwing spanners into the transport system.

The Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF) IV under its sub project, ‘Land Resources Conservation’, worked with the community in Chitalo Village to reclaim the gullies. The project focused on contributing to food security through the restoration of soil fertility for cost effective farming.

In a series of step by step activities, the project began by sensitizing the beneficiaries on the process of gully reclamation to cultivate cooperation and foster ownership of the project among community members.

The project focused on reclamation, planting vertiver grass in the gullies and constructing check dams. These interventions were designed to control runoff and facilitate refilling of the gullies.

The success of the project also relied on partnerships with other stakeholders in Balaka. Director of Planning and Development for Balaka District, Obed Mwalughali says “extension staff guided and provided expertise to community members in planting vertiver and construction of check dams.”

Balaka has in aggregate reclaimed 67 gullies in 4 years. Land Resources Conservation officer for Balaka James Kadaya says his office worked hand in hand with the district Forestry Office to reclaim the gullies.

“We focused on constructing check-dams and the Forestry Department did their part in the regeneration of the forests. These combined efforts have paid off,” says Kadaya

The wetlands have re-emerged where there were only gullies now reclaimed and the land earmarked for irrigation projects.

The project was also a form of cash transfer to the benefiting community. Workers in reclaiming the gullies were drawn from the community each paid K900 per day.

The success of the gully reclamation project is worth replicating.

“I love spending quality time here with my family. It’s bewitching beauty is amazing,” says a university lecturer in his early 30s as he strolls with his young spouse around a professionally tendered fish pond. The perennial supply of fresh water feeds the pond from an adjacent catchment area with a beautiful green canopy.

A soft breeze from Lura Catchment area produces a romantic whistling sound as it thrashes through an array of pine trees, sweet enough to the skin, ear and nose. The fresh air from the fish pond slithers with a skin soothing touch while spicing up relaxation on the fish pond embankments; a memorable experience.

The fragrance the trees convey, provides fresh air embellished in nature’s blossoming scent here. Besides pine trees, the catchment area is covered with indigenous tree species which are dominated by the Masuku species.

This is the ambiance any potential tourist would love to sample based on the university lecturer testimony.

The genesis of the fish pond project was born out of the understanding that the endowments in this village forest can provide a suitable ecosystem for biodiversity. Fishing is seamlessly adapting to the environment here.

“We started with an afforestation project to conserve trees, and then officials from the Fisheries Department advised us to construct a fish pond. They saw the viability of the proposed fish project, especially with the presence of trees around,” Khumbo Harawa, the project’s chairman says.

Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF) IV Public Works Programme, supported the construction of the fish pond which started with 21 people in 2016.

Just as the community started with afforestation, the journey has not stopped on fish pond project. Pressing ahead with their advanced plans, the community intends to make the catchment area a fully-fledged recreation site.

“The trees that we have planted and those growing naturally provide very beautiful scenery around the fish pond. Most people come with cars and take pictures against this beautiful background view. We want to make the place even more beautiful and attractive,” says Harawa.

In essence what started as an afforestation project is expanding into a multipurpose facility accommodating the fish pond and a potential future tourist attraction site.

The community plans to construct summer huts to provide shelter for future patronage. This is killing not only two birds with one stone but three big birds – afforestation, fish pond and recreation necessitated by the project’s clean environment.

These projects combined, hypothetically make Kajikasuku Fisheries Project at Lura in Traditional Authority Mwalweni in Rumphi, an appealing backdrop brimming with a smart environment management.

The National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) has successfully ensured preparation and submission of 2017-18 and 2018-19 for all the 35 Local Councils Financial Statements to National Audit Office for audit.

The remarks were made by the Executive Director of NLGFC, Mr Alifeyo Banda during the quarterly NLGFC staff review meeting held on Monday, 16^th March 2020 in Lilongwe.

Alifeyo Banda said the submission of the Financial Statements from all the thirty-five councils were an exceptional achievement as it was the first time this had happened.

In his remarks, Director of Finance for the NLGFC Kondwani Santhe said the ‘submissions are in line with the financial legal framework provisions of the Public Finance Management Act, (2003), the Public Audit Act, (2003), and Local Government Act, (1998)’. He said the financial legal framework provides that councils are to keep proper accounting records, which discloses with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Council and ensures that the financial statements are prepared and submitted for audit at least within three months after end of the financial year.

The submissions come following increased focus by the NLGFC to enforce compliance by councils to the expected legal mandate following years in the past where other councils had not prepared financial statements, accruing between 1-5 years.

The Executive Director has since assured the Government, all Malawians and Development Partners that the NLGFC will ensure that all local councils in Malawi are audited regularly by the National Audit Office and that Controlling Officers and other officers in local councils found to be on the wrong side of the financial laws will be held to account and taken to task for any deviance.

The National Local Government Financial Committee is mandated by the Constitution (Sec. 149) to facilitate fiscal decentralisation, development, financial management and compliance through resource mobilisation, allocation, disbursement and accounting in Local Councils.

The National Audit Office confirmed in a separate interview receipt of the financial statements and had since commenced audits in the councils.