Malawi Government has failed to provide K42.5 billion to local government authorities during the second quarter of 2024, giving them K34.47 billion, an amount that paralysed service delivery across sectors.
The amount is a K9.99 billion shortfall in funding and builds on the K6.3 billion which was also not provided during the first quarter this year after councils received K10.7 billion of the projected K17 billion.
An analysis by the Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) released on Friday shows that underfunding of the councils was affecting vital sectors such as health in terms of drug budgets and agriculture.
Reads the analysis in part: “All district hospitals depend on central government transfers for their operations. In the past two months, it has been very difficult to provide public health services, including ambulatory services, patient feeding, cleaning services and even medical services.
“It is the time the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) is affected so that farmers prepare for the rainy season. It has, however, been difficult to operate without operational funds which have since September 2024 not been transferred to all the local authorities [LAs].”
The analysis shows that the general agriculture budget for councils was K613 million, but only K415 million was provided while AIP administration was pegged at K143 million, but was given K87 million. On the other hand, the K873 million drug budget received K802 million.
From the expected K4.48 billion on city roads, only K1.7 billion was provided, hospital rehabilitation got K3.5 billion from the expected K5.3 billion, District Development Fund (DDF) got K1.4 billion from K2.2 billion.
The report further says borehole funds amounting to K281 million were also not provided, but the K9.6 billion for the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was disbursed.
In an interview yesterday, Malga executive director Hardrod Mkandwire said it was worrisome that the government was failing to walk the talk on funding.
He said: “There is inconsistency between policy and action. This continues to be a central feature of fiscal devolution. We are launching policies, very ambitious, but what happens is contrary to what is expected.”
Commenting on the situation, Centre for Social Transparency and Accountability executive director Willy Kambwandira, whose institution constantly reviews works councils, said the situation was a signal of a deep fiscal crisis.
“The development means decentralisation is paralysed and accountability compromised. In the absence of proper explanation, one would only speculate that the government is broke,” he said.
Secretary for Local Government, Unity and Culture Richard Hara could not be reached for comment yesterday.
But in an earlier interview, he stated that most of the time disbursement by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs is based on cash flow.
Said Hara: “Basically, a government budget is much of an estimate because you cannot precisely say we will collect so much.
“At Local Government, we don’t determine what we should receive. We are equally concerned with not being funded in full.”
The Constitution under Section 150 places a duty on the central government to ensure that local governments have adequate resources to exercise their functions.
