While the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation said it has released K7.8 billion under the reformed Constituency Development Fund (CDF), councils say have not received the money.
Principal Secretary for Decentralisation Peterson Ponderani said in a statement on Wednesday that disbursement began at the start of the financial year on April 1 2026 with funds for project preparation.
He said the reformed CDF is different from the previous model, where funds were sent to local councils quarterly before projects were identified and appraised.
The statement comes in response to concerns by local councils that CDF money was not yet available almost four months into the new financial year.
Ponderani said by the end of June, Treasury had released K7.87 billion to local councils to support project preparation and management activities.
“Funding will be disbursed after project identification, technical appraisal and completion of procurement processes to cover advance payments to contractors,” the statement reads.
“After the advance payment, subsequent disbursement of CDF resources will be performance-based and done upon presentation of valid works certificates and fund requests.”
But on Thursday, Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) executive director Hadrod Mkandawire, while welcoming the Treasury update, said in an interview that no council had received actual CDF project funds.
He warned there could be pressure on councils to deliver effectively once the funds start flowing.
Parliament’s Local Authorities and Rural Development Committee chairperson Edward Chileka Banda described the disbursement as a positive step, but said implementation continues to be hampered by bottlenecks.
Chileka Banda said with the first quarter of the financial year gone without any projects, the situation could worsen as the rainy season approaches.
He described the K7.87 billion, which is roughly K34 million per constituency, as meagre compared to the allocation of K5 billion for each of the country’s 229 constituencies.
“Our expectation was that each council would, by now, have received at least 50 percent of its allocation to accelerate implementation plans,” he said. “But we still do not have details regarding what this K7.87 billion is intended for.”
Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira called the statement “a troubling case of double standards” and an attempt to rewrite the narrative after an overly ambitious promise.
“It is unfortunate Malawians were led to believe the funds would be available at the beginning of the financial year, only for government to shift the goalposts by arguing that disbursement can only come after project identification, appraisal, procurement and certification,” Kambwandira said.
“These are processes government itself knew would take time, making the earlier promise either a result of poor planning or a deliberate political pronouncement designed to create public excitement without a practical implementation roadmap.”
He added that government should take responsibility for raising unrealistic expectations.
“Public trust is eroded when government first makes grand announcements for political mileage and later hides behind administrative procedures that were known from the outset,” he said.
Under the reformed CDF, each of the country’s 229 constituencies is earmarked to receive K5 billion for development projects — a potential national allocation of about K1.145 trillion.
In the previous financial year, each constituency received K220 million under the CDF.
