Budget management and transparency have emerged as key issues for discussion and consideration among local councils in the implementation of the Reformed K5 billion Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
Two facilitators, Steve Kanyerere from the Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) and Mathias Kafunda, a social policy specialist from the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef), discussed the issues at length in Blantyre yesterday during a session with representatives of Mwanza, Chikwawa and Mulanje district councils.
The meeting focused on supporting selected local authorities to produce and disseminate district citizens’ budgets and to provide financial reporting training.
| Mathews Kasanda
They stressed the need for councils to be as open as possible and to have proper communication channels that can also accommodate citizens’ responses on how resources are being spent on projects and project progress.
“If we keep this information to ourselves, we will be like failures,” Kanyerere told the participants.
He also said communication is crucial, because sometimes funding to councils is delayed, which can be misinterpreted by citizens.
Kafunda discussed the development of the citizen budget, also touching on the possibility of inflation reducing purchasing power and the possibility of transferring funds to other projects within the respective sectors.
He said resources within the health sector can be transferred to contain a sudden outbreak of cholera.
“Citizens have to understand why funds are transferred. Citizens have to know why we are transferring resources,” said Kafunda.
The councils were also dared to formulate budgets using terminology that can be understood by ordinary citizens.
In an interview, Malga executive director Hadrod Mkandawire said the refresher course aimed to enhance the capacity of local authorities to produce and disseminate citizen budgets, which are one of the tools of accountability.
He said lack of accountability and transparency creates speculation, which affects trust.
“The citizens need to be aware of this so that when they are making demands, the demands have to be aligned to approved estimates,” said Mkandawire.
The three-day workshop, which ends today, was funded by Unicef.
