Dowa District Council Ranked Among Malawi's Top Performing Local Authorities
Out of the 28 District Councils in Malawi, only three have failed to secure Gesd funds.
DOWA, MALAWI - The Local Authority Performance Assessment (LAPA) has lauded Dowa District Council for emerging as one of the best-performing councils in Malawi across various key areas, including development planning, procurement, financial management and accounting, and health service delivery, writes Vincent Gunde.
This prestigious ranking positions Dowa District Council as one of the privileged recipients of development grants from the World Bank-funded Governance to Enable Service Delivery (Gesd) initiative.
These grants will be utilized to implement a range of projects aimed at benefiting the impoverished population within the district.
Out of the 28 District Councils in Malawi, only three have failed to secure Gesd funds.
These unfortunate councils failed to meet the minimum access conditions due to issues such as underperformance, mismanagement of project funds, and various other factors.
The Director of Planning and Development for Dowa District Council, Mercy Mpakule, expressed her gratitude to the organizations implementing interventions in the district and government sector heads for contributing to the council's remarkable performance.
She singled out various areas where the council excelled, including access to information, audit and audit-related matters, financial and physical progress reporting, financial management and accounting, and health service delivery.
However, Mpakule also acknowledged areas where the council faced challenges, particularly in the education and service delivery sectors, where the council received a score of only 20 percent.
She called upon partners and education stakeholders to collaborate more closely to improve the education sector's performance.
Mpakule highlighted key issues identified by LAPA, such as Development Service Committee meetings not prioritizing investment projects for approval by the Full Council, irregular supervision and inspection of schools, and the uneven deployment of teachers across the district.
As a way forward, Mpakule revealed that the council has already initiated self-assessments for the evaluated sectors and is now focusing on Agriculture, Works, and Education.
The council's goal is to achieve a score of over 90 percent in these sectors in the upcoming LAPA assessment, scheduled to begin on September 18, 2023.
"Access to information is another area where very few councils performed well, with Dowa scoring 67 percent," Mpakule noted.
"We are also not vigilant in revenue collections, and most Local Authorities failed to adequately hold site progress meetings, issue certificates, collect locally generated revenues as per the budget, resolve audit issues, and disburse all SIG funds in a timely manner."