By Golden Kang'oma

Salima, June 6, Mana: National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) has advised Salima District Council to be creative in coming up with activities that will increase locally generated income in order to attain a better score in the Local Authorities Performance Assessment (LAPA).

The call has comes after Salima District Council dropped some points in the LAPA from position two in the 2022/2023 assessment to position five in the 2023/2024 assessment.

Speaking during the dissemination of the LAPA results at Salima District Council, Director of Local Government Services, Douglas Mkweta, acknowledged the council's achievements but stressed the need for continuous improvement to maintain their high standards as other councils strive to attain better scores.

"The council performed well in several areas, but its overall scores have declined compared to the 2022 LAPA. This indicates that there is much room for improvement to ensure the council can climb higher in the rankings," Mkweta said.

Salima District Council achieved a perfect score in procurement management, improving access to communication, physical progress and financial reporting, conducting audits, addressing audit issues and education service delivery.

The council has been urged to focus on improving mobilization of locally generated revenue and development planning, areas where it did not perform well.

Salima District Commissioner, James Mwenda, affirmed the council's commitment to addressing the recommendations thereby improving its performance.

"What we have here is a learning point, and we will work hard to improve our performance so that we can attain better scores for enhanced development initiatives," Mwenda said.

Chairperson for Civil Society Organizations in Salima, Paul Duncan, praised the council's performance and expressed confidence that the council could achieve better results by addressing the recommendations.

Salima District Council received MK544 million Performance Based Grant after scoring well in the 2023/2024 LAPA. The grant will be used for the implementation of projects under the Governance to Enhance Service Delivery (GESD) projects being supported by World Bank.