The Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament has warned district councils against frustrating development efforts through abuse of taxpayers’ money.

In an interview on Friday after visiting Mulanje District Council to appreciate development projects under the World Bank-funded Governance to Enable Service Delivery (Gesd) project and District Development Fund (DDF), committee chairperson Gladys Ganda said time is up for councils that do not perform to improve service delivery.

She said: “Now use the funds prudently as the new Public Finance Management Act empowers us [the committee] to bite leaders in the councils who are frustrating efforts to give high-quality projects to people.

Ganda: We urge councils to be transparent

“No shoddy works. We have been mandated to recommend punishment. We urge councils to be transparent and accountable on these projects.”

Ganda said the committee will push central government to devolve funding into councils for total decentralisation to ensure sustained development.

Commenting on the projects inspected, she commended the council for the best performance in implementing Gesd and DDF projects.

Ministry of Local Government services director Richard Hara said they are advocating for the complete package of projects.

He said: “We advise councils to do projects that address a number of issues not one component to be useful to people once completed.

“We will keep providing guidelines to the low-performing councils so that they also do better.”

Mulanje district commissioner Stallichi Mwambiwa attributed the best performance to team work and the desire to serve the citizens well.

“Gesd gives us more funds to do state-of-the-art projects like this K62 million Chimwamwesi Bridge and K31 million reticulated water system supply that has eased mobility and gives safe water to over 5 000 people,” he said.

Gesd is a $100 million (K104 billion) five-year World Bank funded project being implemented by Malawi Government through National Local Government Finance Committee.

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