Citizens in cold as government falters on funding

By Deogratias Mmana:

When president of the Economics Association of Malawi (Ecama) Bertha Chikadza visited Chikwawa District Hospital last week, what she saw there is what she describes as “pathetic.

“There is no cotton, no drips, no drip stands,” she said.

Across the country, concerns are growing about the collapse of public service delivery.

This is the cost Malawians are paying as government fails to fund departments, five months after Parliament passed a K6 trillion budget.

This week, The Nation newspaper reported a funding crisis in Ministries, Departments and Agencies, leaving them without capacity to deliver public services.

Among the departments and agencies hard hit include the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, Malawi Human Rights Commission, the Office of the Ombudsman, the Office of the Director of Public Officers Declarations, the Malawi Legal Aid Bureau, Financial Intelligence Authority, the Anti- Corruption Bureau, mining and tourism ministries and Independent Complaints Commission.

The country’s district councils are also reported to be struggling, making it difficult for them to deliver public services in health and education sectors, among others.

So is government broke?

Chikadza said “broke” would be too strong a word because that would mean government has stopped delivering everything.

But she challenged the government to find other options of raising revenue because, she said, public service is poor.

She admitted that by failing to provide funds that were approved by Parliament, the government is breaking a law.

“But would we police the MRA [Malawi Revenue Authority] boss? MRA needs to up their game to find more ways of raising revenue,” she said.

She also said adequate funds can be raised but they are often compromised by leakages and corruption, among others.

Executive Director for Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency, Willie Kambwandira, said MDAs’ failure to access funds since the passing of the national budget is disastrous and government owes Malawians an explanation.

“In the absence of proper explanation, one would only speculate that government is either broke or the national budget was drafted based on unrealistic revenue projections,” Kambwandira said.

He added: “It is however sad that while government MDAs are going through dry spells, our leaders appear to be in their own world living extravagantly and travelling across the globe.”

Treasury spokesperson Williams Banda said MDAs are funded according to cash flows.

“Each MDA gets funding but the access to the funds delays. Treasury funding is below budget line,” Banda said.