Councils in bad shape

Lack of necessary equipment in urban councils, weak enforcement of laws and political interference are putting a strain on local authorities, depriving citizens their right to access services.

This is contained in a report by the Parliamentary Committee on Local Authority and Rural Development on Waste Management and Revenue Collection.

The report has since recommended that the central government should improve the state of affairs in the councils.

Among others, the report states that some of the councils do not have appropriate waste management and disposal procedures; hence, they are practising open waste dumping due to absence of landfill machinery.

This means the councils are polluting the environment while encouraging scavengers to camp at such sites.

Reads part of the report: “Therefore, the committee urges the government to improve the state of affairs in the city councils through system automation of all urban councils to ensure effectiveness and efficiency, especially in the process of revenue collection.”

It also observes that all the four city councils are failing to update their records which is leading to the loss of revenue, particularly when there is property ownership change.

Therefore, the report is urging the Ministry of Finance to design and implement revenue reform programmes that will capacitate the revenue base of the councils.

The committee also wants the Ministry of Finance to consider devising a reasonable procedure on capturing city rates and generating penalties for non-compliance of payment.

On the other hand, the committee thinks Lilongwe and Mzuzu city councils should be allocated resources for procurement of machinery for waste management.

The Lilongwe City Council has separately been asked to explore ways of generating revenue locally to help in delivery of better services instead of relying on government funding as the resource envelope remains small with competing priorities.

Further, the committee has also suggested that Lilongwe and Zomba city councils should go on learning tours to other councils that are seen to be progressing such as Blantyre and Mzuzu city councils.

In addition, the committee also wants the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to review the Local Government Act to address issues of penalties.

But in an interview yesterday, Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira said councils ought to digitise their revenue collection and up their accountability.

He added that rampant corruption in councils remains the major challenge affecting service delivery.

Kambwandira said: “There is just a lot of corruption in the councils. So, for us it’s a question of dealing with rampant corruption in the councils that is choking service delivery.”

When contacted for comment yesterday, Malawi Local Government Association executive director Hadrod Mkandawire asked for more time.

But Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Blessings Chinsinga told Weekend Nation edition of January 29 2022 that the ministry is in the process of reviewing the Local Government Act to clear grey areas.

He said the priority is to turn councils into hubs of economic prosperity and changing negative incentive structures that are deep-rooted and anti-developmental.

Councils have recently had accountability and financial management challenges, according to findings of multiple studies.

A 2015 Tilitonse Fund Report also found that local councils faced numerous queries bordering on fraud and accountability of funds which had progressively increased in subsequent years.