By Blackson Mkupatira

Chiradzulu, June 6, Mana: National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) Budget Analyst, Jonathan Banda, has commended Chiradzulu District Council for making significant improvements in governance and service delivery.

The council's Local Authority Performance Assessment (LAPA) score has risen from 49 percent in 2022 to 63 percent in 2023, enabling it to qualify for a K377, 412,616 Performance Based Grant under the World Bank funded Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) Project.

Speaking at the LAPA results dissemination meeting on Wednesday, Banda said Chiradzulu District Council has performed extremely well in contract management and project implementation, access to information, procurement management, scoring a perfect 100 percent in each, which is commendable and worthy noting.

Banda acknowledged the council's remarkable score of 87 percent in agriculture service delivery and average scores in budget execution, finance management, health and education. However, he was quick to say that there was room for more improvement.

“Other areas we would like to see the council improve on are; local revenue mobilization, audit and addressing audit issues, development planning and budgeting and financial reporting," Banda added.

He, therefore, advised the council to fully prepare for the next LAPA so that it continues to progress to qualify for more funding for developmental projects in a bid to provide better services to residents of the district.

Chiradzulu District Commissioner, Francis Matewere, expressed satisfaction with the council's progress, noting that Chiradzulu moved up five steps in the LAPA rankings from 26 to 21 despite being a relatively ‘minor’ council.

Matewere added that for the first time in history, Chiradzulu has attained a clean audit opinion, which is no mean achievement as it shows that its financial statements were clean and that it is managing its finances prudently.

“We have performed well; yes, but the goal is to reach 100 percent. So, I will be holding meetings at different managerial levels to see how best we can strategize to improve in the areas that we did not do well,” he said.

Chiradzulu District Council Chief Education Officer, Gertrude Maliko, lamented that the district receives inadequate funding and does not have enough development partners to meet all education performance indicators, many of which, require substantial resources.

Maliko, therefore, appealed to the assessment team to take such factors into consideration, saying some councils have unique challenges.