Councils want development budget
District councils in the Northern Region have accused central government of derailing decentralisation. They cited Capital Hill’s failure to devolve the development budget to councils.
Representatives of the councils expressed their sentiments during a dissemination meeting in Mzuzu where the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development presented a Development Cooperation Strategy (DCS) that seeks to guide development activities in Malawi.
In his contribution, Likoma district agriculture development officer Vincent Wandale noted that it is illegal, as per the Local Government Act of 1998, for the central government to continue implementing development activities in districts at the expense of councils.
He said: “[The] Local Government Act clearly stipulates that development activities will be happening at district level. Unfortunately, since 1998, the development budget has not been devolved to councils to the extent that councils do not have enough money for implementation.
“As a result, implementation is being done by the central government. In the end, when there are mistakes on the ground, there is nobody to raise the alarm since the central government cannot monitor itself.”
Wandale suggested that if the development strategy is to be meaningful, it should embrace the decentralisation policy by devolving funds for developments to councils.
Nkhata Bay district commissioner (DC) Fred Movete said projects have stalled in most parts of the country because of government’s failure to embrace decentralisation.
He said government should change the approach in its relations with local councils if the country is to develop.
Said Movete: “The central government has been taking charge of many development projects. But most of the time they [projects] end up as white elephants where we lose billions of money.”
He observed that if government can strengthen human resources in councils, devolving funds into councils could not be a challenge.
Responding to the concerns, Betty Ngoma, assistant director for Debt and Aid Management in the Ministry of Finance, said the ministry is set up differently from other ministries. She said this would make it difficult for them to devolve funds to councils.
Said Ngoma: “The way we operate is different from the way other ministries operate. For example, we are mostly at Capital Hill, except the Department of Accountant General which is [found] across the country.”
In an interview on Monday, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development spokesperson Muhlabase Mughogho said her ministry has formed a task force to review the Local Government (Amendment) Act of 2010 to look into decentralisation issues.
But on the issue of devolving funds to local councils, Mughogho referred the paper to National Local Government Finance Committee executive secretary Wezi Mjojo who, when contacted, said the issues raised are policy-linked; hence, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development is better placed to comment.
But Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Technology Vincent Ghambi, who was among the delegates at the meeting, urged the Ministry of Finance to borrow a leaf from what his ministry has done in decentralising salaries for teachers into zones.
He said: “We are now moving staff from the ministry headquarters into zones to handle issues of salaries,” he said.
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe launched the strategy on December 11 2014.
