The Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) has asked local councils to embrace open contracting principles and practices for better public procurement and contract management outcomes.
CHRR executive director Michael Kaiyatsa made the appeal in a statement issued following the release of the 2021 Local Authorities Performance Assessments (Lapa).
The assessments have seen Blantyre and Ntcheu district council’s missing out on receiving Performance-Based Grants (PBG) in the 2022 financial year following their failure to meet Minimum Access Conditions (MAC).
The councils have failed to meet the MACs due to non-compliance with procurement and contract management requirements, among others.
Kaiyatsa said they believe that open contracting characterised by disclosure of information, accountability, value for money and oversight through the entire procurement process can be instrumental in empowering district councils to do well in such performance assessments.
“The need to adopt open contracting is also provided for in our laws, including the Malawi Constitution, the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Act of 2017 and the Access to Information Act, among others,” reads part of CHRR’s statement.
It says the fact that Blantyre and Ntcheu district councils will not receive the performance-based grants is a burden to the districts themselves, including residents who are already in a financially straining environment.
During a media briefing in Lilongwe on Tuesday last week, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Blessings Chinsinga said the two councils spent District Development Funds allocations on ineligible expenses, as such, they could not receive the performance-based grants.
Blantyre district commissioner (DC) Bennet Nkasala said in an interview that they failed on procurement management and contracts management due understaffing in the two departments.
While admitting shortfalls in the management of some fund, in a separate interview, Ntcheu DC Francis Matewere said the council performed well in some indicators.
Lapa is conducted to determine whether local authorities have the basic capacities or institutional safeguards to manage development grants and provide fiscal incentives to improve local authorities’ performance by rewarding good and penalising poor performers.
The assessment also seeks to identify performance gaps and inform the development and implementation of performance improvement plans for local authorities. The World Bank supports the five-year K90 billion Governance to Enable Service Delivery project which aims at strengthening institutional capacity and performance.
