Mzuzu City North member of Parliament (MP) Paul Mkandawire (Malawi Congress Party) has proposed the amendment of Public Finance Act to include penalties to ministries, depar tment s and agenci e s (MDAs) that overspend their budgetary allocations.
In his contribution on the 2025/26 Mi d -Year Budget Statement in Parliament on Friday, the legislator said MDAs go scot-free when they overspend and the introduction of penalties would bring sanity in public expenditure.
He also said sanctioning non-complying officers would enhance MDAs’ performance.
Said Mkandawire: “We need a Bill on the amendment of the law so that it includes penalties. Once an MDA overspends, there should be a penalty. At the same, when an MDA performs well, there should be a reward for that. We need performing MDAs for the economy of the country to tick.”
The sug ge s t ion fol lows an obser vat ion Mini ster of Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation Joseph Mwanamvekha made recently that MDAs overspent their allocations.
He said the mid-year outturn for recurrent expenditure amounted to K3.502 trillion, compared to the mid-year projection of K3.220 trillion, representing an overrun of K281.8 billion, which is 8.8 percent.
Mwanamvekha said wages and salaries overspent by K125.9 billion, representing a 19 percent overrun of the mid-year target of K661.5 billion
Meanwhile, the minister is today expected to wind up debate on the Mid-Year Budget Review Statement.
In the Mi d -Year Budget Statement, government revised the national budget upwards by K512.6 billion from K8.077 trillion to K8.589 trillion.
