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Programme Coordinator of the of the Malawi-German Programme for Democracy and Decentralisation (MGPDD) Bodo Immink said on Thursday over 50 percent of the German money that was donated towards civic education for the May elections went towards allowances for NGO staff.
Immink told a national conference, running in Blantyre between Wednesday and Friday to analyse all aspects of the elections, that the NGOs always submit big budgets and that most of the money is budgeted to pay for allowances.
The meeting was organised by MGPDD.
“Even when the resources are limited, the NGOs still prioritise on getting allowances,” said Immink.
He said NGOs should regard elections as a civic duty and be able to “walk to neighbouring villages and provide civic education to people without expecting allowances”.
And in an interview, Immink said MGPDD spent more than K30 million on NGOs even before the registration exercise for the election was conducted.
“We couldn’t assist many more NGOs which had made proposals to us because a huge sum was already spent and over 50 percent of that money was towards allowances,” said Immink.
During the meeting, an official of the Institute of Policy Interaction Rafiq Hajat disclosed that a national inter-religious dialogue has been scheduled for August 4 where the role of the faith community, an issue that attracted a lot of controversy in the run up to the May 20 elections, will be discussed.
Hajat made the disclosure in agreement with a presentation by Deputy Programme Coordinator of MGPDD Gerard Chigona who told the conference that there was need for clarification on what role religious bodies in the country can play in politics.
UDF legal advisor Paul Maulidi said at the meeting people should think of putting up a legal framework to regulate the conduct of religious bodies in the electoral process.
But MCP second vice president Nicholas Dausi disagreed with Maulidi, saying the faith community cannot be left out of politics “because the duty of the church is to instil a national conscience”.
Other organisations that have been involved in organising the conference include Pac Nice, Forum for Dialogue and Peace and a German human rights and democracy body Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The meeting is aimed at assessing the entire electoral process, highlighting the lessons learned, and charter Malawi’s democratic path with recommendations for future elections.
A book will later be published with the papers presented as well as the conclusions drawn from the discussions.
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