The Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) has penned Secretary to the Treasury over delays in funding for Local Government authorities.
The association has also taken the Ministry of Finance to task over arrears.
In a letter signed by Malga Executive Director Hadrod Mkandawire, Malga has noted that the Treasury’s delays to disburse funds to district, municipal and city councils is negatively affecting service delivery.
He said they have taken note of the fact that some Local Government Authorities (LGAs) in Malawi did not receive funding for January (eight LGAs) and February (14 LGAs) as at Friday, April 19 2024, while none received funds for March during the 2023-24 financial year.
“We have also noted the continued development of funding cuts in some councils. In light of the foregoing, we would like to request your good office, Sir, to provide us [with] detailed timelines when the Local Government Authorities that did not receive funding for the months of January and February 2024 will get their arrears and when all the Local Government Authorities will receive their funding for the month of March 2024,” Mkandawire says.
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Accountant General (AG) Henry Mphasa said the office is now working on the payments for the new financial year [2024 to 2025] in compliance with provisions of the Public Finance Management Act after the budget has just been appropriated by Parliament
He said the government has always been liquid, especially in the month of April— in any case, this is the beginning of the financial year.
“However, the controlling officers and heads of MDAs [ministries, departments and agencies] are supposed to write the Secretary to the Treasury and, in consultation with the Budget Director, they may allow for such payments to be processed by the AG depending on criticality and circumstances surrounding the transactions,” Mphasa said.
Meanwhile, Secretary to the Treasury Betchani Tchereni has confirmed that they have received the communication, just as they receive many such communications from all the MDAs.
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He said the issues are multifaceted.
“The changes we tried to bring to enhance efficiency seem to be facing acceptance challenges. There are human resource capacity challenges which are faced at the LGFC, posing challenges to Malga members to load their payment vouchers.
“Being that it is, Treasury to LGFC and then to Malga, we are convening a meeting to try and sort the challenges together. Otherwise the funding issues were effected; it is the actual disbursement which is facing the capacity challenges,” Tchereni said.
