By Sylvester Kumwenda

Dowa, August 23, Mana: Deputy Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture Owen Chomanika has called for collaboration amongst local assemblies, their staff and development partners to enhance service delivery.

Chomanika said at Chikho Hotel in Dowa during a two-day Quarterly Coordinating Meeting organized by the ministry.

He said people expect a lot from government through the local assemblies, but this cannot be achieved if there is lack of collaboration amongst service providers.

"If the Community Development Fund is not working somewhere, it means somewhere there is a problem, whether at the Secretariat or with the Member of Parliament (MP). If health, education, agriculture, and deceased estate services are not working, it means there is a problem to be dealt with.

"So after doing an analysis, we discovered that one of the challenges is coordination. That is why we conduct these quarterly meetings and bring together District Commissioners, MPs, councilors, and council directors to reflect on our work, learn from each other and improve our service delivery," he said.

Chomanika also spoke against the tendency of absenteeism amongst council staff saying this contributes to delay in service provision.

"You find sometimes directors are not in office for three days, they have been taken somewhere by a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) which is not even doing anything tangible.

"That is why our NGO board is here to make sure that we at least discuss all these things and properly align issues," he added.

Chomanika then asked NGOs to align their activities with their respective councils' Social Economic Profiles (SEP) to ensure maximum project impact and avoid duplication of work.

On the issue of resources, Chomanika urged councils to use and allocate prudently and avoid underutilizing the resources.

In his remarks, Board Chairperson for Malawi Local Governance Finance Committee Commissioner Richard Chapweteka, said one of the challenges in local councils is the low rate of absorption of resources.

"We noted that usually councils wait until funds are in their accounts to start the procurement processes. But going forward, we have told them that they need to be starting procurement processes before the money is in because they already know their budgets.

"However we should commend councils because now, all have done well in audits. This means the abuses which were there are now being eradicated. This must continue," he said.

Hadrod Zeru Mkandawire, Executive Director for Malawi Local Government Association also urged councils to coordinate effectively with development partners at the local level.

He however acknowledged that sometimes development partners dictate on how and where resources are to be utilized, which sometimes render other areas with more interventions than others.

"For fear of losing resources or to be seen as putting spanners to development, councils submit to the demands of development partners through the NGOs, which in ideal situations is not supposed to be the case.

"Councils are supposed to stand their ground and guide according to their SEP, District Development Plans, mapping, that this is an area much concentrated with resources, and probably ask for an initiative to move to another area," he said.

However, he said they are working hand in hand with the Non-Governmental Organizations Regulatory Authority to see how best issues like these can be addressed.