Ministry warns errant officers, councils

Ministry of Local Government and the National Local Government Finance Committee have vowed to discipline controlling officers and councils that abuse public resources meant for various development projects.

The committee said it has developed sanctions to provide clear guidelines in line with the existing legal framework to enhance accountability and financial discipline on management of public funds  and to hold duty-bearers accountable and liable.

The Ministry of Local Government, on the other hand, said it is banking on the revised Public Finance Management (PFM) Act, which came into force on April 1 2022, to mete out fines, ranging between K10 million and K50 million to errant controlling officers.

Minister of Local Government Blessings Chinsinga revealed this in Mzuzu yesterday when he led the ministry in reviewing the performance of local councils, interrogating existing challenges and suggest and provideing solutions.

The minister said like in all other government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) the revised PFM Act provides clear sanctions against errant officers in councils.

He said: “Every public resource must be used for the intended purpose and the councils are no exception. We have a new Public Finance Management Act that clearly outlines penalties or sanctions that have to be meted on those who have abused resources.

“As a ministry, we will ensure that we carry out both internal and external audits on time to ensure that if there are any transgressions, the abusers are sanctioned accordingly and we are lucky that we have this new Act which clearly outlines these penalties.”

Under Section 110 (1) of the revised PFM Act controlling officers who misuse, or permit misuse of public assets and expend funds where there is no appropriation of such expenditure, are supposed to be punished with a K50 million fine.

National Local Governance Finance Committee board chairperson Richard Chapweteka said some officials have been treating councils as their cash cows; hence, the need for strong sanctions against such individuals.

He said: “While government provides resources for various projects, the quality of such projects leaves a lot to be desired because some officials treaty councils as their cash cows.

“To that effect, we are introducing sanctions using necessary legal provisions, both in our constitution, public procurement and other related laws.”

Chapweteka said they have concluded working on the draft sanctions and will soon make them available to the public.

He said: “Where there is proved abuse or mismanagement, theft and corruption of public finances, the committee shall surcharge the council, its controlling officer and any other officer in line with applicable provisions through agencies such as the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Office of the Ombudsman and Fiscal Police.”

Malawi Local Government Association executive director Hadrod Mkandawire said going forward, there is need to reward councils that are prudent but punish those that are deviant.

He said: “We can use the performance-based grants that are being used by the World Bank’s Governance to Enable Service Delivery [Gesd] project as an architecture and template of providing resources to local authorities.

“If they perform well, we give more resources. If they don’t perfom well, resources should be withheld.”

In August this year, the Office of the Ombudsman laid bare how personal allowances dominated expenditure lines for the extra K17 billion that the Treasury released to finance the Covid-19 Response Plan at the peak of the pandemic in February 2021.

Findings of an investigation  showed that the sampled five district councils of Lilongwe, Ntcheu, Zomba, Phalombe and Karonga had one thing in common, huge expenditures on allowances at the expense of essential services.