The Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture Richard Chimwendo Banda has on Friday urged city, town and district officials to strengthen their ideals and convictions, develop and put into practice a right perspective on their performance, and work hard for the causes of the nation to achieve its socioeconomic development as enshrined in the Malawi’s 2063 blue print.
Chimwendo was speaking at Sunbird Livingstonia Beach in Salima District during the official presentation of Performance- Based Grants where he disbursed funds totaling K22 billion to 25 Local Assemblies which excelled in their performance in 2021/22 financial year.
“We cannot move forward as country if our technocrats are still using old tricks in the books to develop new Malawi. We need to be innovative, doing new things and always keep in mind the progress of our nation and empowerment of our people depends on us,” said Chimwendo who is also leader of government business in Parliament.
The Local Assemblies Performance Assessment (LAPA) report has indicated that Balaka, Zomba and Machinga local assemblies are the only three that have not received their share because of its dismal performance while Mulanje and and Salima have passed with flying colours.
“Am very disappointed with the three lazy assemblies because it means the communities have been denied access to development that could have gone long way in changing their socioeconomic status. I dare to say, you either stand with poor Malawians or find other jobs to do because the journey to prosperity will not wait for those who are sleeping on their jobs” said Chimwendo who looked very concerned in his speech throughout.
With support from the World Bank- funded Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) Project, the Ministry of Local Government conducted the Local Authorities Performance Assessment for 2021/2022 Financial Year from 6th to 25, Novermber, 2022 with an objective of determining the level of performance for Local Assemblies.
This is the third time that the Ministry has conducted the LAPA exercise.
In the first year, 24 Councils received the Performance Based Grant(PBG) while 25 councils received grants in the second year after passing the Minimum Access Conditions.
