Economists have backed the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) promise to allocate K5 billion to every constituency in a financial year, but have warned of potential abuse.
If K5 billion is allocated to each of the 229 constituencies, it would translate to about K1.2 trillion every year.
In its September 16 General Election manifesto, DPP pledged to make the allocations, stating on page six: “We will allocate K5 billion every year to each and every constituency, that is K2.25 billion to be spent in every ward every year.”
The party, whose presidential candidate Peter Mutharika triumphed in the presidential race with a 56.8 percent voter confidence, said through such a decentalisation model, at least 229 professionals will be recruited as executive directors “together with thousands of engineers, doctors, nurses, auditors, researchers, artisans and many more”.
Reacting to the pledge now that DPP is set to form the next government, Malawi Economic Justice Network (Mejn) executive director Bertha Phiri said in an interview yesterday that the decision to disburse K5 billion to every constituency calls for implementation of a robust transparency mechanism.
She also feared that given lessons f rom the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), the new allocation stands a risk of potent ial abuse and mismanagement.
Said Phiri: “Given Malawi’s fiscal year resource envelope, this decision is most likely to out-crowd other important sectors like health, education and social protection.
“The DPP government can borrow the Governance to Enable Service Delivery funding window that has clear measures that i s performance-based funding and funding that front citizen engagement.”
The measures include clear budgeting and reporting, regular independent audits to ensure that funds are used in accordance with budgetary provisions and legal requirements.
Economist Christopher Mbukwa, who teaches at Mzuzu University, said while the proposal is a good idea for decentalisation, the incoming government should provide more details on how the programme is going to be implemented.
He said if it is going to be implemented the way CDF is managed, there could be fears of abuse because there have been reports of CDF abuse despite positive outcomes.
Mbukwa observed that K1.2 trillion could translate to up to 10 percent of the national budget which might disadvantage other equally important sectors such as agriculture and mining.
“They should come up with guidelines. Is it not going to displace other equally competing sectors? But it is a good development for decentralisation,” he said.
In the 2025/26 National Budget, CDF was allocated a record K42.5 billion based on the previous number of 193 constituencies.
However, data show that many communities are still waiting for basic infrastructure promised years ago.
Nation Publ i c ations Limited investigations in Chikwawa, Neno, Ntcheu, Nsanje and Mangochi between July and August this year uncovered a widening gap between allocation and delivery as well as between what the CDF guidelines say and what actually happens on the ground during execution.
CDF, which has previously raised concerns about its effectiveness, transparency and accountabi lity, has grown exponentially from K1 million per constituency in 2006 to K220 million today.
