Govt told to trim travel budget, Fisp

Civil society organisations (CSOs) working in Malawi’s public health, HIV and Aids management sector have asked Parliament to cut allocations to the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) and internal travel and redirect the money to top up the health budget.

In a petition delivered on Friday to Malawi Parliament currently deliberating the K638.2 billion (about $1.5bn) 2013/14 National Budget, the CSOs said such cuts and resource redirection will help Malawi to meet its commitment agreed alongside other African States in 2001 to allocate at least 15 percent of their budgets to health.

Some of the regional and international obligations pertaining to health, HIV and Aids management that Malawi has signed up include the 2011 United Nations General Assembly Political Declaration on HIV and Aids, the 2001 Abuja Declaration and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“This public petition represents a call on MPs’ moral conscience to take a hard look at the underfunding of the health sector and how this is increasingly putting the lives of their constituents and the citizenry of Malawi in danger,” said the CSOs led by Centre for the Development of People (Cedep) and the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR).

The CSOs asked the legislators to compel Minister of Finance Ken Lipenga to realign the National Budget and allocate funds to the health sector by redirecting part of the K33 billion (about $82.5m) earmarked for local travel in FY2013/14.

The internal travel budget, which the Ministry of Finance concedes is one of the biggest sources of wasteful spending, has jumped from the approved K15.7 billion (about $40m) in the 2012/13 fiscal year to K32.8 billion (about $82m) in 2013/14.

This represents 108 percent increase, which prompted the Malawi Economic Justice Network (Mejn) and Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) to warn that the People’s Party (PP) administration wants to use the resources to indirectly fund political activities ahead of the May 2014 tripartite elections. The petitioners believe chunk of that money can save lives in public hospitals nationwide.

Added the CSOs: “We believe that other resources should come from subsidy [Fisp], which is increasingly becoming inefficient, nepotistic and fertile ground for corruption as well as a gravy train for political bootlickers, ruling party financiers and a campaign tool masquerading as a pro-poor welfare initiative that is bankrupting the country and which has failed to pull out its targeted beneficiaries out of the poverty trap as envisioned in 2006 when it started.”

While commending government on the 31 percent (K10 billion) nominal jump in health sector allocation to K42.4 billion (about $106m), there is need for a further increase, especially given the depreciation of the Malawi kwacha and the ruling double digit inflation rate that has eroded the local currency’s buying power over the last 12 months.

Since 2012/13, the total percentage of the annual allocation to health has remained at 12 percent and, according to projections in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF); the sector’s estimates are projected to freeze within the 12 percent range in 2013/14 and 2014/15.

In terms of resources to the Department of Nutrition, HIV and Aids and the National Aids Commission (NAC), the figure has surged from K13.4 billion in 2012/13 as per revised estimates to K23.7 billion (about $59.2m) in 2013/14, representing an increase of over 76 percent.

Despite this, the area’s budget is projected to fall sharply to K13.5 billion (about $33.7m) in 2014/15 and K14.5 billion (about $36.2m) in 2015/16, respectively.