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Malawi Economic Justice Network

The Malawi Economic Justice Network welcomes the 2001-2002 Budget as one that laregely focusses on improving the lives of the poorest in Malawi. However, MEJN retains a number of serious concerns over whether the commitments made in the budget to spending on key Priority Poverty Expenditures will actually be fulfilled, as no new systems for detailing, reporting and guaranteeing expenditures have been included in the budget, despite assurances given by the Minister during his pre-budget consultations.

Wednesday, June 27, 2001

During his speech, the Minister made considerable reference to the PRSP Findings to Date document. This document gives a summary of the discussions held to date during the PRSP formulation process. Specifically it outlines twelve key Priority Poverty Expenditures identified during the consultations held to date. These are Credit, Rural Feeder Roads, Community Policing, Agricultural Extension, Teaching and Learning materials, Teacher Training, Teacher Salaries, Drugs, Health worker training, Health worker salaries, Boreholes and the Targeted Input Programme.

These 12 areas are also reflected in the report made to Parliament by the Budget and Finance Committee following extensive consultation and discussions.

At a very general level, the budget appears to contain provision for each of these areas, which is commendable. However, what the budget did not contain was the essential changes recommended by both PRSP and the BAF Committee in the presentation, reporting and guarantees needed that these expenditures will actually be made. Specifically three areas need to be addressed.

1. Firstly the presentation of the PPE’s is not clear at all. What was requested was a clear detailing of expected outputs, the cost, the comparison with last year and a breakdown of where the funds are coming from (Donors, Govt, or HIPC). This is not available for any of the 12 areas identified.

For example, the critical need to train nurses and other health workers was an agreed area of priority expenditure. Although there is a budget for nurse training, the budget documents give no indication of how many nurses they want to train or at what level. There is also no indication of whether the figure given represents an increase on last year, and how the funding will be broken down. Without this data as a baseline, it will be virtually impossible to show whether or not the Government is achieving its targets and the maximum number of health workers are being trained this year.

2. Secondly, there has been no increased commitment by the Government to release figures on these key areas as the year progresses. There is apparently no change from last year in this respect. This is not good enough, as information must be released clearly and in a timely manner if any effective ongoing monitoring of these expenditures is to be carried out. Much was made by the Minister in his speech of the availability of figures on the Internet, but this is simply not the case. The most up to date figures available on the web or elsewhere date from December last year, and are at a level of aggregation that makes them virtually unusable. If this system continues unchanged this year monitoring will not be possible in any meaningful sense.

3. Thirdly, the PRSP Findings to Date Document and the Budget and Finance Committee report recommended that Government guarantee the key Priority Poverty Expenditures. Specifically the money could not be used for any other activities without firstly asking the permission of Parliament. Unfortunately, despite verbal commitments by the Minister in his pre-budget consultations to the creation of ‘protected’ expenditures, there was no reference made to protecting any Government expenditures in this year’s budget. As a result there is nothing to prevent the same situation as last year occurring where money allocated for key activities such as teacher training was diverted to other activities.

MEJN feels that without these three changes to the budget this year, it will not be possible to monitor these expenditures in any meaningful sense, and if not experience has shown that the laudable commitments of the budget often do not translate into actual government spending on the key areas that will reduce poverty in Malawi.

MEJN is therefore calling on the Government to make the necessary changes to the budget. MEJN is also calling on Parliamentarians not to pass the budget unless these changes are made. Finally MEJN is calling on concerned stakeholders to make their worries known to the Government and to call for these changes.

Let us come together to ensure that Malawi’s scarce resources are really spent on reducing the huge burden of the poor.

ENDS