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| National |
| $10 million spent on travel |
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by
Ephraim Munthali, 09 May 2004
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16:59:11
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Government has in the past nine months spent about $10 million of the money meant for pro-poor activities on travelling, according to a review of the 2003/2004 budget performance.
This figure represents eight percent of the approximately $111 million that the present budget allocated to the protected Pro-Poor Expenditures (PPEs).
Ben Kaluwa, a senior economics lecturer at Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi, carried out the review and presented it at a pre-budget meeting held in Blantyre on Friday.
Society of Accountants in Malawi (Socam) organised the meeting which saw more than six papers being presented.
In an interview later, Kaluwa said he did not establish who was travelling, the destinations and for what reasons.
But he said: “One thing which is clear is that it is not the poor themselves who were travelling. This leaves government officials.”
“Were these officials visiting the poor? Did they need K1 billion to visit them? Even if they were travelling to implement pro-poor activities, is this amount justifiable?” Asked Kaluwa.
Kaluwa also argued that salaries and benefits for people who implement pro-poor programmes are far much higher than money which goes to the activities.
An expenditure report that the Ministry of Finance published last week showed that personal emoluments makes up three-quarters of the PPE budget.
“This means that only a small fraction of the pro-poor expenditures reaches the intended beneficiaries,” he said.
The government report said more than 68 percent of the budgeted PPE figure has been utilised.
“With this trend it is anticipated that the PPEs will receive full funding by the end of the fiscal year,” said the report.
Ministry of Finance budget director Dorothy Banda refused to comment on the matter and referred the matter to ministry spokesman Patrick Zimpita who could not be reached for comment.
Finance Minister Friday Jumbe’s phone went unanswered when contacted for comment.
Kaluwa said if government fails to justify this expenditure, the issue could worsen Malawi’s relationship with donors, particularly the IMF.
Donors have in the past called on the Malawi Government to reduce non-priority expenditures like domestic and foreign travel.
The donors have also told government to effectively implement pro-poor programmes in areas like health, education and food security as identified by the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. |
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