MK4 Billion mid-year budget scandal

PREAMBLE

The Council of NGOs in Malawi (CONGOMA) within its mandate as a representative of the collective interests and concerns of all NGOs in Malawi feels duty bound to provide its views and opinion on the reported MK4 billion Mid-Year national budget review scandal. Our opinion comes in as NGOs complement Government (Executive, Parliament and the Judiciary) in various ways including direct service delivery to the people; advocacy including budget tracking and watchdog role on governance issues and many more. As such, actions of Government including shoddy re-allocation and appropriation of resources in the national budget have a direct negative or positive impact on the work and development results of NGOs on the ground, hence our opinion.

  1. FACTS

CONGOMA takes cognisance of the facts that:

  • The Executive has a Constitutional duty to initiate policies and laws that embody the express wishes of Malawians and protect the Constitutional principles including the provision of a framework for transparent planning, delivery of services to all with integrity and utmost financial probity (Republican Constitution (2000) S7 and S13(o));
  • The National Assembly has a Constitutional mandate and duty to appropriate all public funds before they are spent by the Executive;
  • The three Branches of Government complement one another in their functions and are expected to check one another’s excesses to avoid abuse of any sort.
  • The Mid-Year national budget review process is a central tenet of public resource optimization in which budget figures are adjusted according to performance and new financial forecasts agreed upon.
  1. 2017/2018 MID –YEAR BUDGET REVIEW

Our analysis of what transpired in Parliament shows evidence that the facts of Government functionality above, to a large extent, came to a halt on the issue of MK 4 billion, when;

  • The Executive secretly allocated a ‘saving’ of MK 4 billion to a selected few Members of Parliament for no explained purpose nor traceable source of the ‘saving’.
  • The Executive was set to spend this MK 4 billion without Parliamentary approval
  • Parliament agreed to regularise by appropriating to their Constituencies the sum of MK 4 billion which they did not know the source, instead of pressing Government to explain the source and purpose of the money initially allocated to a few privileged MPs
  1. OUR CONCLUSIONS

With the foregoing, CONGOMA is convinced that:

  • The Executive negated its duty to uphold Constitutional principles of transparency and accountability in the allocation of resources for national development and instead it secretly and shamefully practiced politics of appeasement and played with lives of Malawians that are languishing in poverty.
  • The action of the Executive to hide and secretly distribute funds to friends and comrades raises serious issues of public trust and confidence around safety of the public pulse.
  • The revelation of ‘loose’ money to the tune of MK4 billion is a valid indicator that the Executive actually has more than enough funds to provide public services to Malawians. However, this is ironic because public services leave a lot to be desired. In addition, with this kind of resources, Government should be able to fund its Ministries, Departments and Agencies adequately, including NGO Board of Malawi, instead of exacting hefty and punitive fees on NGOs.
  • Parliament seriously goofed when it agreed to appropriate the MK 4 billion to all Constituencies when they do not know its source. What if the source is through corruption or plunder of public resources? Will Parliament deny complicity? In this regard, CONGOMA condemns both Government and Opposition sides in Parliament for their selfishness.
  1. OUR CALL TO ACTION
  • A Public Hearing be constituted to get to the root of the issue and provide an opportunity to regain public trust for the Executive
  • The Anti-Corruption Bureau investigates the issue and prosecute any criminal elements involved at all levels
  1. LAST WORDS

CONGOMA would like to end by saying that the issue of the ‘loose’ MK 4 billion is a serious public trust, transparency and accountability issue that Malawians should tirelessly press their elected Leaders at all levels to account. If this does not happen, democracy, good governance and development will continue to suffer in Malawi. We call upon our members to empower the Communities and achieve open Government.

Signed

Steven Duwa

CHAIRPERSON

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