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The Malawi Economic Justice Network (Mejn) says it finds difficulties to source information on financial input and allocation from some government offices.
Mejn national coordinator Collins Magalasi in an interview said this attitude by some offices frustrates efforts to monitor inputs.
The network is mandated to monitor the national budget at input and outcome levels.
Magalasi, however, said the Parliamentary committee on budget and finance has been very helpful in providing the network with the information it requires.
“The committee fills the gap created by the government offices,” he said.
In a separate interview Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe said his office has never been communicated to by Mejn to provide it with information.
“I am surprised with what Magalasi is claiming. Why is it that he only emphasises the negative only? We have a website that has all the information and we even invite them during our discussions, what else do they need,” wondered Gondwe.
When monitoring inputs, Mejn says, it looks at the availability, timeliness and quality of outputs of the government budgets such as teaching and learning materials in schools, drugs in health centres and extension workers in Agriculture.
Monitoring output entails visiting and confirming receipt of the services by the cost centre and comparing the information with inputs reports from Treasury.
Monitoring budget and the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper out comes since 2003 involved finding the levels of citizens’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the quality of public services they are being provided.
On levels of citizen satisfaction in 2003 financial year, it was reported that Admarc came first, followed by health centres, district hospitals, police service, extension service and the last one was the education sector.
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