CSEC urges improved disbursement, utilization of education budget
Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) has said the government should focus on improving disbursement and utilization of “the significant” MK900 billion budgetary allocation to the education sector in the 2024/2025 national budget.
CSEC Executive Director, Benedicto Kondowe, made the sentiments Thursday in Lilongwe when the coalition and other education stakeholders presented a budget analysis to cluster committees of Parliament.
He said an expenditure tracking CSEC conducted for the 2023/2024 education budget actually established that disbursement and utilization levels “are very low”.
Kondowe, therefore, said “it does not matter” whether the 2024/2025 budget has allocated more funds, especially if “very little” is disbursed and equally utilized.
“Our tracking, for instance, has shown that for primary education, only 64 percent of money is being disbursed and out of that utilization is exceeding 86 percent. The trend is the same for secondary as well as tertiary.
“The impression being made is that allocation is one thing since a budget is a mere aspiration. What is important is how much of what is allocated in the national budget is disbursed.
“It is not enough just to celebrate a huge allocation in the budget. What is important is how much is disbursed and utilized to make a difference that we all want to see,” he said.
Ephraim Nayeja, Vice Chairperson for the Parliamentary Committee on Education, concurred with Kondowe, adding that low disbursement and utilization of funds delays or stalls projects and affects operations of departments and agencies in the education sector.
“As the legislature, we will, therefore, do a lot in monitoring and tracking of the expenditure of the MK900 billion education allocation. We will intensify our oversight role to ensure that the expenditure is done according to plans,” he said.
The CSEC budget analysis also recommends the devolvement of education’s development budget to local authorities, citing stagnation and abandonment of projects “because everything else is centralized”.
According to Kondowe, CSEC’s view is that within the policy of decentralization, more resources need to be channeled to local councils “for that is where impact is”.
CSEC further suggests increase of TEVET levy to about three percent, saying the new levy should not just target TEVET but also other subsectors of education.
“If we do that, we will be creating a bright future for generations to come,” Kondowe said.
CSEC prepared and presented the budget analysis in collaboration with Oxfam Malawi, FAWEMA and GAYO, among other partners.
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