Councils say lack of funds crippling performance
Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) says local government councils have poorly performed because of inadequate funding.
Malga president Wild Ndipo, who is also mayor of Blantyre City Council, said this at Sunbird Nkopola Lodge in Mangochi on Friday at the end of the 2019 Local Authorities Conference organised to review the performance of the councils in an attempt to improve public service delivery.
His sentiments followed a concern by Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Kondwani Nankhumwa during the opening of the conference. The minister expressed dissatisfaction with the local government councils’ performance, rating them “below par”.
But in an interview on Friday, Ndipo, while admitting the failure, said funding was the major problem crippling councils’ performance.
He said: “Yes! I cannot dispute the observation made by the minister. You quoted him right when he said councils are failing to impress. But what should also be highlighted here is that we [councils] are not receiving enough funding.”
Ndipo added that lack of qualified staff in local government councils, poor guidance and mechanisms in handling development funds and lack of capacity building among staff, among others, also contribute to the poor performance.
In his remarks, Nankhumwa challenged the council officials to take proactive steps to enhance performance, saying it remains government’s quest to see to it that under decentralisation councils’ performance is always impressive.
He said: “Of course, we have a myriad challenges, but what can be your argument in a situation where other councils are doing fine. Therefore, let us be serious with government resources and commit to our work.”
Malawi has 35 local government councils comprising four city councils of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu; two municipal councils, namely Luchenza in Thyolo and Kasungu; one town council, Mangochi; and 28 district councils.
However, in recent years some of the councils have confirmed struggling financially with some of them failing to meet statutory obligations such as paying staff salaries. The councils have largely attributed their poor financial positions to reduced revenue and non-payment of ground rates by property owners. n
