By Joel Phiri

Mzimba, February 13, Mana: Chairperson for M’mbelwa District Council, Morgan Tembo has heaped praise on councillors and Members of Parliament (MPs) in Mzimba for nodding to the council’s proposed 2025/2026 annual financial budget pegged at K67 billion.

Speaking in an interview on Wednesday after passing the budget, Tembo said people living in Mzimba are looking to have various projects from the money in the budget.

‘‘There are schools and bridges that need to be constructed, dilapidated structures that need to be renovated and roads that need to be upgraded. All these will now be possible with the funding that has been approved’’, said Tembo.

The budget approval did not however pass easily as Member of Parliament for Mzimba South, Emmanuel Chambulanyina Jere expressed concerns on how developments funded by Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) funds are distributed in constituencies.

Jere observed that most GESD projects have been concentrated in Mzimba Solola and Mzimba East Constituencies leaving other constituencies with little developments from the GESD Funding, estimated at K1.6 billion.

‘‘There are some constituencies that are benefiting more from GESD funds than others. We need to distribute developments fairly without side-lining others,’’ said Chambulanyina Jere.

“If the GESD funds cannot be used to develop the areas fully, let authorities appeal to the donors if they could allow us to pool the funds and embark on one big development project that will benefit all people of Mzimba other than coming up with piecemeal funding that are not helping areas have impactful projects’’, said Chambulanyina.

He cited the state of most roads as being in a very bad state and if GESD funds can be pooled together and buy a grader it would be used to upgrade all roads in various constituencies to facilitate easy mobility.

‘‘Some of these developments such as school blocks, can be constructed using Constituency Developments Funds (CDF). Let us use GESD funds for big projects that an individual MP cannot manage to do using CDF funds’’, he said.

However, Tembo said the suggestion by Chambulanyina Jere to have one big project is untenable because every politician wants to have projects in their areas to impress his people and there is little chance that other MPs and councillors would settle for the one big-for-all project.

In his response, District Commissioner for Mzimba, Rodney Simwaka said projects are initiated and agreed by the members of development committees and there was need for the committee to scrutinize all projects by various constituencies before allocating them.

Among others, in the budget for 2025/2026, personal emoluments have been pegged at K45 billion, the development budget stands at K17 billion while the operational budget is pegged at K4.6 billion.

Among other proposed projects in the budget include the acquisition of land for residential and commercial plots at Euthini and the construction of access roads at Raiply Malawi Limited.

Others are construction of a staff house and VIP toilet at Chipho and the construction of two-span bridge at Emazwini.

The budget will be financed by three windows of government and donor transfers and locally generated revenue.