Civil society organisations (CSOs) have decried delays by the Executive to disburse resources under the Reformed K5 billion Constituency Development Fund (CDF), saying it raises questions about the new performance-based model against availability of funding.
The sentiments arose during a stakeholders roundtable discussion in Lilongwe yesterday which came against the backdrop of Parliament’s push for clearer rules to govern the fund and government’s assurance that the money belongs to communities and should be managed transparently through councils and local structures.
In his contribution, Institute for Policy Research and Social Empowerment director and lead consultant Henry Chingaipe said there was merit in suspecting that the delays could be linked to government’s limited financial capacity.
He said the increase from K220 million to K5 billion per constituency was substantial and, when multiplied by 229 constituencies, created a financial demand that could be beyond the country’s current capacity.
“Just from those basic premises, K5 billion multiplied 229 constituencies is a significant amount of money that may be outside the financial capability of the government at this point in time,” said Chingaipe.
He said the situation was compounded by debt pressure and the fact that a large share of revenues was already committed to statutory spending and debt servicing.
Chingaipe said the new CDF framework appeared to borrow from performance-based systems used in donor-funded programmes, yet CDF is part of the national budget and should not be implemented in a manner that leaves councils and communities uncertain about when the money will be released.
Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira said government must explain where the money is instead of leaving stakeholders to speculate.
“The government must explain where the money is,” he said.
But in an interview yesterday, Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation spokesperson Williams Banda said the government is noto facing any fiscal challengesrelating to CDF financing.
He said CDF has been funded since April.
Banda alsoclarified that the performance-based framework is not restricted to CDF projects as the arrangement applies to all government-funded projects.
He said: Since CDF is part of the development budget, the performance framework applies. This ensures that there is no abuse of resources and also encourages speedy implementation of projects.”
In a separate interview, Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) executive director Hadrod Mkandawire said government has only released K497.4 million for orientation of constituency development committee.
In June, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development Principal Secretary Dingiswayo Jere assured that the fund would roll out on July 1 across all 229 constituencies.
The expanded envelope, which consumes K1.145 trillion of the K10.9 trillion 2026/27 National Budget, has left local councils stranded in a multi-month funding lapse, mirroring earlier warnings by Malga.
During the roundtable, stakeholders also raised concern over what they described as a communication gap in the new CDF framework.
In November last year, Parliament unanimously backed a motion calling for a law to govern CDF administration, while in January this year Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Ben Phiri said the fund belonged to communities, not politicians, and that implementation could continue through councils and area development committees even without MPs in the structure.
