NGLFC tips Mchinji Council on budget

The National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) has engaged Mchinji District Council to ensure that its 2024/25 budget adheres to national priorities and financial regulations.

Speaking on Monday in Mponela, Dowa during a review of the council’s budgetary plans for the 2024/25 fiscal year, NLGFC financial analyst Duncan Macheso said they wanted to assess the council’s compliance with guidelines on prudent resource utilisation.

He advised the council to update its Local Revenue Enhancement Strategic Plan (LRESP) to enhance local revenue generation.

“By and large the council has complied with the required guidelines except on locally-generated revenue where it has been found that they don’t have an updated LRESP,” said Macheso.

Mchinji District Council chief accountant Fedderick Muyaba acknowledged the absence of the LRESP. He attributed it to under-collection of revenue.

“Our plans to boost revenue include selling plots, gate collections from the community ground and border entry fees,” he said.

Mchinji district commissioner Lucia Chidalengwa thanked NLGFC for the budget review.

“We acknowledge that we have a lot of work to do based on the recommendations,” she said.

NLGFC also advised the council to work on debts accumulated through water and electricity bills by engaging utility companies to lobby for 50-50 debt settlement.

Key aspects of the budget highlighted during the meeting included revenue sources such as locally generated funds, central government transfers, development funds such as Constituency Development Fund, Water Resources Fund, District Development Fund, donor funds for programmes such as Governance to Enable Service Delivery and Climate-Smart Enhanced Public Works Programme.