The African Development Bank (AfDB) has said it will examine how budget support will be channelled in view of the country’s three-year programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) going off track.
Last week, an IMF team led by mission chief Oral Williams declared the country’s $157 million (K88 billion) Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programme off-track for failing to meet set targets for end-June 2015.
The IMF mission made assessments between September 16 and 20 through discussions for the 2015 Article 4 consultations and to discuss the $157 million ECF arrangement which was approved in July 2012.
AfDB country manager Andrew Mwaba, in an interview on the sidelines of the 5th Annual Procurement and Supply Management Conference at Sunbird Nkopola Lodge in Mangochi on Friday, said in terms of general support, the IMF decision does not affect their funding to Malawi.
“But in the support that we give, in terms of budget support, we are going to really examine this to see how possibly this [budget support] can be channelled.
“Without the IMF programme being present, it is difficult for us to make general budget support, but there are other ways we are going to use to rechannell resources to continue supporting Malawi,” he said.
Under normal circumstances, the IMF green light gives a go-ahead to other bilateral donors to provide budget support. But since the revelation of Cashgate, in which around K577 billion taxpayers’ money may have been stolen in a coordinated way by private sector and government officials, traditional bilateral donors stopped providing budget support in November 2013.
It was only the AfDB that released $30 million (about K17 billion) in April this year as sector budget support for basic social services of health and education.
In his speech at the conference, Mwaba said there cannot be successful implementation of projects without efficient and effective procurement management.
On his part, president of Malawi Institute of Procurement and Supply (Mips), AzikiweMussa- Mbewe, reiterated that corruption and looting of public funds is evil and should not be tolerated or accepted.
