Ministry of Local Government said it is impressed with the implementation of the first phase of Government to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) project as it has impacted positively across the country.
Secretary for Local Government, Unity and Culture, James Chiusiwa made the remarks on Monday in Lilongwe when his ministry in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, the National Local Government Finance Committee as well as the Local Authorities were launching GESD mid-term.
The project which started in December, 2020, has been implemented for two and half years.
The project which is aimed at strengthening local authorities’ institutional performance, responsiveness to citizens and management of resources for service delivery is financed by the World Bank to the tune of USD 100 million.
The project plans to disburse US70 Million to all 28 District Local Authorities through Performance Based-Grants (PBG) which supplements the District Development Fund (DDF) and is disbursed to Local Authorities in line with the Local Authority Performance Assessment (LAPA) results which is conducted every year by the Ministry of Local Government.
Chiusiwa said over the years, there have been commendable improvements and achievements.
“For example, in 2021, 24 councils qualified to access performance based grant, surpassing the target for that year by 14 councils. This represents 240 percent achievement. A total of 4.9 billion Malawi Kwacha was disbursed to the 24 qualifying councils which implemented 152 projects. Out of these projects. A total of 148 projects had been completed, representing 96.4 percebt completion rate. Out of the completed projects, 93 projects were functional, representing 62.8 percent project functional rate.
“In 2022, a total of 25 councils qualified to access the performance based Grant cycle 2 resources, against a target of 15 councils for that year. It is encouraging to note that out of the 25 councils that qualified to access the Performance Based Grant cycle 2, four councils attained unqualified audits status. The total allocation for PBG cycle 2 was 12.7 billion Malawi Kwacha” said Chiusiwa
Despite the successes, Chiusiwa said there are some issues that needs reflection to ensure the optimal attainment of the objectives of the GESD project.
For instance, he said, there’s a worry regarding non-access of Performance Based Grants by some councils, thereby denying the citizenry of their right to development.
He further said his ministry has put some measures to address the challenges like devising performance improvement support to all district councils to fill performance gaps identified during LAPA as well as supporting the Local Authorities that perform poorly in LAPA so that they improve their performances.
In his remarks, Board Chairperson of the National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) Commissioner Richard Chapweteka concurred with Chiusiwa that while having a successful GESD project, there were some hiccups which need to be worked on.
“We have noted stalled, uncompleted projects, some due to lack of basic things like School blocks without desks/furniture, clinics without medical equipment, police units without staff houses etc which causes delayed opening of such investments so I hope this Mid-term project review will reflect on them to mitigate achieve greatness” said Chapweteka
World Bank through its Lead Governance Specialist Debbie Isser said the Bank is still committed in continuing supporting the project after it has shown positive results so far.
