ICT firm enhances access to local government budgets
Malawians can now easily access information on budgets of Local Government institutions and track expenditure for city councils courtesy of a mobile-web based public expenditure tracking platform developed by ICT firm, mHub, with support from Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa.
Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with Lilongwe City councillors and directors recently, mHub Projects Officer, Monica Madulira, said the platform is a section on a broader citizen engagement platform called Mzinda, which was developed in 2016.
Madulira said Mzinda has been providing citizens with means to report their concerns on service delivery of various office-bearers through short message services.
“Building on the success of this engagement, we thought of incorporating a section on public expenditure to promote the demand for information by citizens and ensure the existence of an accountable and transparent Local Government,” she said.
Lilongwe City Mayor, Desmond Bikoko, said the platform will enable citizens to easily access information on budgets.
“Engagement alone is not enough if citizens are to have access to valuable information. This is, therefore, a welcome development as it will push messages to citizens on budgets and expenditures at city council level,” he said.
The platform has been developed under the Information Technology for Citizen Engagement Project that mHub is implementing in partnership with the Malawi Local Government Association and the Story Workshop Educational Trust.
