It has emerged that government has disbursed K688 million of the budgeted K5 billion for the highly touted Malawi Youth Afforestation Programme.
In a letter dated April 23 2019, the National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) said the funding varies from one district to another and was allocated to 26 councils with Lilongwe getting the lion’s share at K60.8 million and Likoma District Council the lowest at K312 371.
In a letter dated April 23 2019, the National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) said the funding varies from one district to another and was allocated to 26 councils with Lilongwe getting the lion’s share at K60.8 million and Likoma District Council the lowest at K312 371.
NLGFC director of infrastructure and economic development Paul Chipeta, in a telephone interview on Monday, attributed the delayed disbursement of funds to cashflow challenges.
He said the programme’s budget was also trimmed from K5 billion to K1.5 billion.
Said Chipeta: “I can confirm that the money that was disbursed was the last chunk of the K1.5 billion which was budgeted for the programme. The main activities were to plant new trees and conserve existing forest reserves such as making fire breaks and improving regeneration.
“District forestry officers [DFOs] were working under instructions that because most of the activities were season-based, they should go ahead with implementation and wait for payment.”
He also acknowledged that the initial list omitted some district councils, notably Ntcheu, Mangochi and Zomba which he said got their funding later.
During the launch of the National Tree Planting Season on December 15 2018, President Peter Mutharika said government expected to plant 60 million trees nationwide by the end of the exercise in early April 2019.
Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development official Davis Sado, speaking on behalf of Secretary to the Treasury Cliff Chiunda, yesterday confirmed that Treasury had wrapped up disbursement of funds for the programme having released about K1.5 billion.
He said: “What remains is for the implementing agencies to follow due processes.”
While some district councils confirmed receiving the funding, the programme continues to face implementation challenges in Neno, Mwanza, Balaka, Zomba, Ntchisi, Dowa and Nkhata Bay where the tree planting exercise was undertaken in March when the rainy season was drawing to an end.
