Give us executive powers—BT mayor
Outgoing Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) president councillor Wild Ndipo has called for the review of the Decentralisation Policy to, among others, give mayors executive powers.
Ndipo, who is Blantyre City Council mayor, told a press conference in Blantyre yesterday ahead of the Association’s Annual General Assembly that the current mayoral position is ceremonial as the city fathers do not make executive decisions at council level.
He further suggested that mayors should be voted by the majority of the people in their jurisdiction rather than councillors only
Said Ndipo: “The position of mayor in this country is just on paper. Of course, the mayor sits above the council’s chief executive officer [CEO], but in practice, CEOs report directly to the Ministry of Local Government. They are the ones who make most of the decisions.
“However, people blame the mayors when some issues are not being handled according to their wish.”
The Blantyre mayor, who has been at the helm of Malga for six years, said he will not run again for the Malga presidential position at the annual general assembly scheduled to start in Blantyre today (Tuesday) to Thursday, September 1.
Among others, the annual meeting seeks to galvanise the voices and actions of local government authorities towards contributing to the achievement of Malawi 2063, in particular urbanisation and industrialisation.
Ndipo made an advanced call to the incoming leadership to advance outstanding issues such as the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) litigation in court, duty-free vehicles for councillors, the Local Government Amendment (LDF) Act and bailout package for councils and official vehicles for municipal and council CEOs and district commissioners.
He also lamented the continued disagreements between councillors and members of Parliament over the running of CDF, saying it is detrimental to development in the cities.
In March this year, Parliament adopted new guidelines that it said would improve the management of CDF and Water Resources Fund (WRF) to control abuse of the funds.
The new CDF-WRF guidelines demand that all procurements should comply with the requirements of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Asset Act (2017) and its attendant Procurement Regulations (2020).
However, Malga challenged the decision in court and in June this year, the High Court in Lilongwe gave Malga the green light to commence judicial review proceedings.
Malga executive director Hadrod Mkandawire faulted the guidelines, saying the powers given to MPs in managing the funds weaken the role of councillors who are supposed to be custodians of local development.
