Goodall: forget about donors
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe has warned controlling officers and chief directors to be prudent in their management of funds because donors will not provide any funds.
Speaking during the opening of the Public Finance Management Reform Programme training workshop, Gondwe urged ministers to work with the available resources and produce results.
He said: “Do not think that if you do certain things or you fulfil certain obligations, then donors will come back. Take it from me, they are not coming back.
“They [donors] were going to get out anyway. They are doing it in Tanzania, Zambia and other countries where there was no Cashgate. Do not expect to be supplemented in any way, use the available resources and do your job.”
Gondwe said the management of departments has changed due to lack of budgetary support from donors.
He said controlling officers need to be further trained in how they can work within the resources provided to them.
Said Gondwe: “Following Cashgate, many studies have pointed out weaknesses in internal controls and lack of commitment to ensure financial prudence. In many instances, this resulted in the accumulation of huge arrears, challenges in bank reconciliation and rampant non compliance rules and procedures.
“Being a controlling officer means that you are custodians of public resources in your respective departments. It has been reported that in many instances Cashgate scandal happened because some controlling officers delegated their responsibilities and in the process some officers took advantage to de fraud government.”
He said disciplinary measures will be followed for failure to comply.
Two weeks ago, Chief Secretary to the Government George Mkondiwa gave controlling officers fresh contracts and cautioned them they would be answerable for mismanagement of funds within their ministries.
In 2013, donors withdrew their budgetary support to Malawi on concerns of Cashgate, the plunder of public resources at Capital Hill through payment for goods and services not rendered to government or inflated invoices.
Former president Joyce Banda’s administration engaged British forensic audit firm, Baker Tilly, which established that between April and September 2013 about K24 billion was siphoned from public coffers.
Earlier this year, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in its analysis of the Malawi Government accounts, found that about K577 billion could not be reconciliated between 2009 and December 2014.
Gondwe’s call for prudence also comes against a background of reports that about 30 percent of resources approved in national budgets go down the drain and government’s recent decision to drastically cut budgetary allocation for ministries, a development that has affected service delivery.
