2 committees lament poor budget tracking

 The Budget and Finance and Public Accounts committees of Parliament have admitted that there is lack of citizen participation in the budget tracking and procurement processes, a development blamed on inadequate funding.

This follows a study by Hivos, an international cooperation organisation, that found that there are gaps where the two committees as well as citizens are not engaged in budget processes and tracking to ensure value for money.

 In an interview on Thursday after Hivos engaged the two committees, Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament chairperson Gladys Ganda said there is need to ensure that whatever project is approved in the budget is tracked down to its implementation.

“The Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament is

 mandated to do that but it is not given resources to fulfil such functions,” she said.

Ganda said there is no participatory budget is not there as no constituents are not involved to track the implementation of the budget.

“When constituents participate in the formulation of the budget, they own it and ensure that they track it down,” she said.

Ganda said apart from the budget tracking, constituents are not aware of procurement processes, resulting in misprocurement issues.

But she said all

concerns will be included in the reviewed Public Finance Management Act.

Hivos project coordinator Tisungane Nanthoka said they wanted to engage the members of Parliament to find out more issues affecting budget implementation.

She said they want an empowered citizenry to participate in budgeting by knowing what is in there and what the budget is spent on.

Nanthoka said: “To hear that there is no citizenry budget participation, to hear that citizens are not participating in the public procurement is really deterring.”

She said Hivos will undertake further research to find out why there is no participatory budget.

Hivos in collaboration with Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace is implementing a three-year project titled Voices and Actions for Accountability in Malawi funded by the European Union.

The project seeks to strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations, media, ministries, departments and agencies and selected local government authorities in evidence gathering, analysis and the publication of findings.

The project will be implemented in seven districts, namely Blantyre, Dowa, Mangochi, Ntcheu, Mzimba, Mzuzu and Zomba