Treasury speaks on Rapid Credit Facility tracking
The Ministry of Finance has said it met all conditions that the government agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) except for submitting quarterly audit reports.
Treasury spokesperson Williams Banda said the audit is being done by the National Audit Office (NAO).
He said auditors could not do their on-site work due to the Covid pandemic.
“RCF resources, or indeed any resources from the IMF, are in the form of Balance of Payment (BoP) support.
“It is provided to the central bank of a country to assist in importation of the needed products. It is never given to be part of a country’s budget,” Banda said.
Commenting on budget lines, Banda said the recent rise in the 2020/21 national budget was done to finance the increased expenditures due to Covid and to re-administer the Malawi School Certificate of Education examinations.
Last year, the fund disbursed about $192 million for emergency Covid support out of which $91 million was disbursed in May 2020 and $101 million in early October 2020.
The first disbursement was entirely BoP support and the second disbursement was 70 percent BoP support and 30 percent budget support.
