ACB gets lions share in zero-aid budget –Malawi Finance Minister
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe has told parliament that Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) vote in the national budget has a 167 percent increment “which is the highest of all votes” to make sure its efforts in fighting graft are not hampered by lack of funding.
Gondwe said when he presented government financial plan for 2014/2015 on Tuesday.
Malawi will have a zero-aid budget as foreign donors, who provide 40% of the budget, froze vital aid worth around $150m in response to the cashgate scandal in the civil service.
Gondwe said government wants to deal with the financial malefeaces and allocated more money to the graft busting body which has been wobbling on the wheels of poor funding in the 2013/14 financial year to the extent that it experienced problems in carrying out investigations and prosecutions.
The bureau only received at most 74 percent of its budgeted funding for operations for the just-ended financial year which was far below its financial demands.
Gondwe said in the budget, law enforcement votes have been granted a more than usual expenditure increase at an average of 80 percent.
The Finance Minister said it is government’s “ desire” to get at the bottom of what really happened as regards the ‘cashgate’ scam.
“This year, the allocation of resources to votes, is based on the need to attain a number of objectives,” he said.
Gondwe disclosed that the Director of Public Prosecution, the Judiciary, the Police have also had large increments for the same reason.
In his budget statement, Gondwe said Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development is being allocated MK142 billion of which MK2.0 billionis for seeds.
The Development budget is estimated at MK74.1 billion and total of MK14.3 billion has been allocated to development projects.
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