Councils starve amid idle money

Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture Richard Chimwendo Banda has bemoaned councils’ struggles to fully utilise the World Bank-funded Governance to Enable Service Delivery (Gesd) grant aimed at enhancing service delivery in local councils.

The minister said this in Salima yesterday when he presided over the release of the annual Local Government Performance Assessment (Lapa) results.

All the 28 districts nationwide have met the minimum requirements to qualify for the performance-based grants, according to the Minister, but he said there is still a lot of money that is not accessed because of local authorities’ low absorption capacities.

He said last year, $20 million (about K34 billion) was set aside for disbursement to councils, but because of delays in completion of projects and other challenges, only 60 percent of that amount was given in grants.

Said Chimwendo Banda: “That is the reason this time around only $10 million [about K17 billion] has been distributed. This is money aimed at uplifting communities through implementation of projects like health centres, police units, bridges, school blocks and many other works.

“But district councils continue to fail to utilise the grants allocated to them due to delays in audits, which affects assessment of the projects. Another problem is the inadequate capacity of local contractors, which results in poor quality of the projects.”

The minister described the development in the previous years as sad, but added it was encouraging that this time around councils have done well and that due to the good performance this year, the grant will be increased to a minimum of $20 million in the next cycle.

“Our ultimate goal is to ensure that we have vibrant democratic, developmental local governments that are efficient, effective and responsive to the needs of our people as vehicles for wealth creation, self-reliance and inclusive governance,” said Chimwendo Banda.

He said the fact that all councils have qualified for the grant implies that the local authorities are making strides towards improving their performance which will translate into improved service delivery.

“Even though councils have performed this well and also with higher scoring points as compared to the previous years, they still have some challenges in several areas,” the minister said.

Some of the challenges, he observed, include inadequate capacity and poor workmanship by contractors, resulting in abandoned projects or substandard work.

During the even yesterday, Dowa District Council emerged the best performing council in the 2022/2023 Lapa. The council scored 84 percent, beating Kasungu and Mchinji which tied on second.

Kasungu and Mchinji district councils were on positions 17 and 21, respectively in the 2021/22 Lapa.

Dowa district commissioner Stallichi Mwambiwa was recognised for his outstanding management style.

The council received K774 109 512 as part of the performance-based grant, and another K2.5 million from NBS Bank for emerging the top performer whereas Mchinji and Kasungu received K1.5 million each from the bank.

Speaking when he presented the awards, Chimwendo Banda  said Mwambiwa has consistently driven his councils to be top performers, observing that when he was at the helm of Mulanje District Council, the district was named the best-performing council in of 2020/21 and 2021/22.

Yesterday, government disbursed $10 million to the deserving 28 district councils who have met the Minimum Access Conditions (MACs).

Last year, 25 district councils met the MACs while Balaka, Mangochi and Machinga districts failed the test and did not qualify for the grant.

The funds are part of the World Bank financed grant which falls under Lapa through the National Local Government Finance Committee and range from K63 million to K1.4 billion.