Councils across the country have gone two months now without funding from Treasury for the Other Recurrent Transactions (ORT) and General Resource Fund (GRF) —two funding pockets that are at the heart of operations and public service delivery in the local government system.
We spoke with10 District Commissioners (DCs) from selected districts across the country in separate interviews.
All of them confirmed going through tough times due to lack of funding for their daily operations.
One of the DCs in the Southern Region said the situation has pushed the council to settle for internal borrowing just to sustain some of the operations at the council.
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“There is only so much that we can do as a council. It is not something that we have to raise alarm on with the Ministry of Finance. They know we have to be funded monthly and when that has not happened, I do not think they need to be reminded.
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“So as a council, we have had to still run operations around here. Because the councillors have to be paid their honoraria, we had to borrow. But it is unsustainable. Some of the health centres around here are suffering because we do not have money. Even fuel for ambulances is a struggle,” the DC said.
Another DC also said they have had to borrow internally to be able to run some activities, hoping to return the money once Treasury funds them.
He said they raised the issue with the Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) to take up the matter with the authorities.
“Missing one month was problematic already, but now we are almost done with the month of July. We can as well conclude that it is two months since we got funding.
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“And we cannot keep operating like that. Our operations will completely crumble if we keep going at this pace,” he said.
Malga’s Executive Director Hadrod Mkandawire confirmed the lack of funding.
He said Malga has raised the matter with the Ministry of Finance a number of times.
Mkandawire said this has basically made the councils ineffective.
He said the General Resource Fund that goes to the councils caters for expenses such as utility bills and various other services at council level.
“As I am speaking to you now, there is a disconnection of water in a number of health centres falling within the local councils. Councils cannot buy stationary; they cannot monitor projects and discharge their mandate as required and even to pay honoraria to the councillors. They need the funding from government.
“With this lack of funding, councils cannot even hold council meetings which are very critical in terms of how our decentralisation is set up. It basically disadvantages the citizens because there is less oversight of duties,” he said.
Mkandawire added that councils are penalised for substandard provision of services to the locals when the key stumbling block for their performance is emanating from the Central government itself.
“Regardless that we are constrained as a country in terms of resource generation, we must also appreciate that the local government authorities anchor almost every key service delivery at the local level. Primary education, water and sanitation, agriculture services — these are critical issues for us as a country.
“Now and again, we have reminded the Ministry of Finance. They are very aware of the huge responsibilities at the local councils. We have reminded them that they should take seriously the responsibilities by local councils. They are only taken seriously when it comes to devolution and not funding. Already they operate on short budgets and it is unfortunate that the few resources are not coming on time,” he said.
Under the decentralisation policy, the Central government transfers to councils funds which are meant for implementation of devolved sectoral policies.
According to the National Local Government Committee (NLGFC), these sectors include education, health, agriculture, water, gender, immigration, irrigation, trade, housing, National Registration Bureau (NRB), youth and sports.
Central government also transfers funds which are meant for implementation of development projects.
These include District Development fund (DDF), Infrastructure Development Fund (IDF), Constituency Development Fund (CDF) as well as Boreholes Fund.
We sent a WhatsApp query to Minister of Finance, Sosten Gwengwe, who is in the United States of America attending a meeting of the International Monetary Fund.
“Let me verify,” he said in response.
He later forwarded a WhatsApp message from the Budget Director indicating that all councils have been funded.
“All institutions including councils have been funded and this can be verified through system reports. The reporter should elaborate on what the real issue is so that he gets assisted accordingly,” reads the text.
However, Mkandawire insisted that no council has received funding since May and the council are crippled at the moment.
“There is no council in this country that has received June or July funding. It is regrettable that some technocrats are deliberately misinforming the Minister for reasons better known to themselves,” he said.
Michael Kaiyatsa of Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) and Charles Kajoloweka of Youth and Society (Yas) lamented the situation and called on the government to take responsibility and fix the situation.
“The implication is very clear that this will cripple delivery of local services most of them are already struggling in terms of proving quality services. This will affect the lives of people on the ground. Treasury must own this and fix the situation,” Kajoloweka.
Kaiyatsa said government needs to understand that development at local levels relies on funding from the councils.
“It is very a sad development because what it means is that their operations will be affected. Development starts at council level and spreads across,” he said.
Section 150 of the Constitution states that government will ensure that local authorities are well funded and have enough resources to discharge their mandate.
Malawi has 35 local government councils comprising four city councils of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu, two municipal councils, namely Luchenza in Thyolo and Kasungu, one town council in Mangochi and 28 district councils.
In the local government system, district councils facilitate the development of rural areas in Malawi.
The NLGFC says the councils make policy and decisions on local governance and facilitate (on delegated authority from central government) the provision of local services and development for the districts.
