Shanil backs Malawi Planning Commission
Former First Lady and Balaka West MP Patricia Shanil Dzimbiri says she is in support of establishing a National Planning Commission as announced by Malawi Finance, Economic Planning and Development Minister Goodall Gondwe “in order to ensure effective economic planning” for the country.
Gondwe disclosed this when he delivered his 2015/15 national budget statement in Parliament on Friday afternoon in the capital Lilongwe.
Contributing on the budget statement, Dzimbiri said the allocation of funds towards the establishment of the commission is “very commendable.”
She said the development should be seen from the Malawi general public desire and discourse as they reflected upon the developmental challenges that have dogged Malawi since independence such as politicising of development, marginalisation of opposition-dominated communities from development processes, inconsistent vision of development, removal of development interventions just for mere political discrediting of predecessors and failure to have nationally agreed development priorities that cut across different but successive government administrations.
Dzimbiri said “there should be proper legislation on to ensure the independence, effectiveness and smooth operations of this independent planning commission.”
The Finance Minister told the House that the new body will act as an independent think-tank for matters of national development.
He said the National Planning Commission will be established by an Act of Parliament.
“The Commission will be led by highly qualified professionals with strong background on development-related fields and the capacity to coordinate sectoral activities,” said Gondwe.
“Inevitably some of its work will be performed by consultants or outsources to other relevant international policy research institutions,” he pointed out.
Gondwe said government has already developed the Commission’s organisational structure and is now consulting various stakeholders further.
The country’s purse keeper said the Peter Mutharika administration is committed to ensure that the Planning Commission “becomes independent of the government, yet effective in influencing the direction of the national agenda.”
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That is redundancy. What is Ministry of Economic Planning and Development for??? We do not need another commission for people to waste hard earned tax payer money. I’m sick and tired of these commissions?
Keep it up mama!
Bravo Madam MP, show dem. no planning there is nothing that can materialise. What can you implement if you don’t have a plan so ya it needs tertiary education for one to understand this not Junior Certificate with all due respect, it can work. Keep it up the MPs no politicking in the august house.
Some one said the problem of Malawi is implementing not planning, Where and what is the Malawi Financial Policy and Plans to implement. Ma budget angokhala hand to mouth basi! We need this we have to have a vision.
Wow!Each citizen knows where she or he slept last night.Knows if ate food or not.The people elected to parliament and their constitue nt citizenry are already agents of change and economic develop ment.The job of the MP,district councillors?Ask the people what they want done in their areas..ta ke that to the house of assembly. The nation is not crying for commi ssions.Every day,the populace spe ak of their needs..”Think Tank” to squeeze juice from a Stone? Poor us.
Priority matters that iz the problem of this government
That is Dr Shanil Muluzi for you. Does she understand what she is saying? What about the people at EP and D? The problem in Malawi is not lack of planning, but implementing what has been planned.
Opposition MPs should speak as if they live in Malawi. Having an Act of Parliament will not ensure that this unnecessary new body is adequately funded or respected. How many bodies backed by an Act of Parliament is the DPP government underfunding in the current budget? Are courts not backed by an Act of Parliament? Isn’t the ACB backed by an Act of Parliament? Isn’t the Ombudsman backed by an Act of Parliament? Isn’t the Law Commission backed by an Act of Parliament? We already have the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, creating a Planning Commission will just create… Read more »
Che Spoon, You are spot on!
While we already have an institution mandated to do such a job why create another one? Or is it that we are too disorganised that we cannot realise that such a job is (should be) done by Ministry of Economic Planning and Development?
Government of passive IBU, AKI NA UKWA. kkkkkkkkkk
It is our hope that this is not another ploy by government to abrogate from its responsibility of developing the country by establishing this scapegoat commission. Developing this nation in all respects remains the responsibility of central government. Tipaone bwinibwino pamenepa. Too many commissions and committees is a sign that government is trying to ran away from their responsibilities so that the blame can be on these commisions or committees should things not pan out as planned. We are watching. What are the terms of reference for this commission, anyway? Were these TORs properly spelled out in the budget or… Read more »