Donors’ trust in Malawi government financial system low—Report

Malawi’s development partners have low trust in the Public Finance Management systems and  the country’s procurement systems at the moment, a Mid-Term Review of the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) III has revealed.

However, with the on the ongoing revived public sector reforms being led by State vice-president Saulos Chilima, the Tonse alliance led  administration has embarked on  actions to tackle corruption and for greater efficiency and effectiveness in the public sector which will possibly unlock aid support.

National Planning Commission (NPC),  director general Thomas Chataghalala Munthali,  whose organisation  had made the  analysis to consider on MGDS  III  pointed out that there is need for greater use of  “public capital market financing for infrastructure projects, including public private partnerships.”

He said the country has not developed significantly because of over-reliance on donors whom he said have different interests than the country’s development priorities.

The five-year MGDS III runs from 2017 to 2022.

Last year, Roy Stewart, a Conservative Party legislator was quoted by  The Times of London as having said that Malawi’s state of impoverishment has worsened despite it getting £4.5 billion (about K4.5 trillion) from Britain in form of aid for the past 50 years.

Malawi has been operating without budget support from its development partners since 2013 when donors withheld their funding following revelations of the plunder of public resources at Capital Hill which British forensic auditors,  RSM  (formerly Baker Tilly), established to be K24 billion between April and September 2013.

Further eroding confidence in government systems is the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report from the examination of public finances from January 1 2009 to December 31 2014 released roughly three weeks ago, which found that at least K577 billion—around 30 percent of total expenditure during the five-year period—was not accounted for.