Blantyre and Ntcheu district councils will not benefit from the Performance Based Grants (PBG) for the 2022 financial year after failing to pass the Minimum Access Conditions (MACs) test during the previous year’s assessment.

Briefing the media in Lilongwe yesterday, Minister of Local Government Blessings Chinsinga said every year the ministry conducts a Local Authorities Performance Assessment (Lapa) where district councils’ performance is assessed in a number of aspects.

He said during the 2021 Lapa, out of 28 districts, Blantyre and Ntcheu failed the test for the assessment conducted from November 1 to 26 by an independent assessor, SP Trainers and Research Consultants.

Chinsinga: They spent on ineligible expense

Said Chinsinga: “These two district councils spent District Development Fund [DDF] allocation on ineligible expenses and they will not proceed to the trigger assessment. That means they can’t access this year’s PBG.”

Blantyre district commissioner (DC) Bennet Nkasala in an interview yesterday blamed the poor assessment results on understaffing of some of the council’s departments.

He said: “It’s true that we failed on procurement management and contracts management. But it is because these two departments are heavily under-staffed so due to pressure of work, some funds were used in projects not intended for.”

On his part, Ntcheu DC Francis Matewere also admitted shortfalls in the management of some funds although he said the council performed well in other indicators.

“We got a good result of 55 percent in performance measures, but we had problems in Minimum Access Conditions where we ended up implementing projects outside our Annual District Development Plans,” he said.

Meanwhile, governance expert Boniface Chibwana has hailed the assessments, saying they help to ensure that systems are in place in the councils to avoid mismanagement of resources.

However, he said it is unfortunate that it is the communities in the affected districts that will suffer due to their councils’ inefficiencies.

Chibwana said: “It’s a good tracker and it must be commended because where internal audit mechanisms are strong and management of the budget and district plans are good, then corruption will not be there.

“Councils should practise prudence because if the council misses out on funding, the people are the ones who suffer.”

During the briefing, Chinsinga said the assessment also identified some positive improvements in the councils’ management compared to 2020.

The challenges include poor record keeping, inadequate capacity both at the district council secretariat and the frontline staff in terms of numbers and technical expertise to effectively fulfill the mandate of councils, inadequate skills and competencies to drive decentralisation efficiently and effectively as well as inability of councils to attract and retain qualified staff due to poor terrain, poor mobility, financial resource constraints and less attractive working conditions.

The project disbursed K4.5 billion in 2021/22 to 24 eligible local authorities and plans to disburse K11.7 billion in 2022/23 financial year as PBGs. The funds are meant for infrastructure development projects in the local authorities.

Lapa is conducted to determine whether local authorities have the basic capacities or institutional safeguards to manage development grants and provide fiscal incentives to improve local authorities’ performance by rewarding good and penalising poor performers.

The assessment also seeks to identify performance gaps and inform the development and implementation of performance improvement plans for local authorities.

The World Bank supports a five-year K90 billion Governance to Enable Service Delivery (Gesd) project which aims at strengthening institutional capacity and performance.

In 2021/22 financial year, Nkhotakota, Mchinji, Blantyre and Thyolo district councils did not qualify for funding under Gesd.

A 2021 Local Authority Performance Assessment report exposed glaring public finance management gaps in 28 local councils, ranging from inefficiencies in development planning, budgeting and auditing to contract management and implementation.

The Local Government Act, as read with Section 10 of the Public Finance Management Act, makes it controlling officers responsibility to maintain proper financial management systems.

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