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Society demands audits on crucial poverty areas
By
Herbert Piriminta - 27-06-2002 |
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The Malawi Economic Justice Network (Mejn), a network of the civil society dealing in economic policies, has asked the ministry of finance to explicitly identify priority poverty expenditure (PPE) areas in the budget so that they are protected and monitored.
Presenting recommendations based on the network’s survey, Mejn national coordinator Collins Magalasi said the government needed to facilitate independent monitoring of PPEs by the civil society and Parliament as demanded by the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (MPRSP).
The MPRSP is a government blue-print for poverty reduction and development policies and also acts as a basis for the debt reduction under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (Hipc) initiative by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“Priority poverty expendi-tures in this year’s budget must be protected. All money for a PPE—be it from Hipc, donor and government—should be ‘ring-fenced’ and [should] not be spent on anything else without parliamentary approval,” said Magalasi.
He suggested that, in budget 2002-2003, PPEs should be clearly stated with quantifiable outputs supported by explanations of how the outputs were derived.
Magalasi also asked government to produce fully transparent and timely figures, for instance monthly publication of disbursement reports, in not less than 30 days after the end of each month.
In addition, he said, government should give quarterly expenditure reports for each PPE down to the lowest cost centre level, saying the reports should be produced by line ministries not less than two months after the end of each quarter.
Magalasi said Mejn met the Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament and government officials in May this year and presented them with findings and recommendations from a national survey.
Among other things, the survey found that there is a serious shortage of agricultural extension staff, a serious problem with record keeping in clinics, and that the current large number of untrained teachers will persist until 2040 if the pace of training teachers does not change.
The survey also showed that the Ministry of Agriculture needed about 1,250 additional field assistants to provide adequate extension services to communities.
The survey found government’s policy investment framework in education, which targets at reducing the number of untrained teachers by 30 percent by 2002, has been missed and will not be reached until 2020.
The network also reports that the 2012 target of no more than 10 percent untrained teachers will not be reached until 2040 because of the current pace of training teachers. |
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