By Leah Malimbasa

Chikwawa, January 24, Mana: National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) Senior Budget Analyst Patricia Banda has commended Chikwawa District Council for exceeding its local revenue collection target.

Banda made the remarks during a budget review hearing session at Amaryllis Hotel in Blantyre on Tuesday, where the council presented its 2023/2024 budget to the NLGFC.

“It is very rare for councils to meet and surpass their targets, so what the council has achieved is not easy,” said Banda after the council’s Director of Finance Steven Kanyerere’s presentation.

In his presentation, Kanyerere highlighted that the council collected K251,150,000, surpassing its set target of K172,000,000.

He stated that this locally generated revenue would significantly contribute to improving sanitation in the district.

“We will rehabilitate our market infrastructure, including toilets, to ensure a conducive environment for operating businesses,” Kanyerere explained and further disclosed that government has committed to supporting the Climate Smart-Enhanced Public Works Program (CS-EPWP) with about K4 billion in the next financial year.

“In addition, we will receive support through Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD); there is a tremendous improvement in the figure that the government is committing next financial year across all sectors, which I believe will greatly enhance service delivery to the people of Chikwawa,” he added.

Apart from the local revenue, the presented budget included funds from other sources, such as the District Development Fund, Constituency Development Fund, and Water Resources Fund from the central government.

It also included donor-funded programs like CS-EPWP and GESD, a performance-based grant incentivizing effectiveness and accountability for the performance of local authorities.

District Commissioner for Chikwawa, Nardin Kamba, expressed gratitude to NLGFC for its support and input during the hearing.

 “I would also like to thank our staff members for their dedication in coming up with this budget, and together we will ensure that all the comments from the experts here are incorporated into our final budget,” he said.

Commenting on the budget, NLGFC’s Scalable Mechanism Coordinator, Mulder Mkutumula, praised the district for including payment for CS-EPWP.

“Overall, we can rate the budget at 92 percent; once we collaborate on the new elements introduced, it will be perfect,” said Mkutumula.

Currently, the total budget for Chikwawa is K8,085,119,593, but it may change as the council incorporates NLGFC’s input, potentially adjusting the budget either upward or downward by the submission date.