Having noted that the country’s local government councils have been involved in mismanagement of public funds, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has revealed that it will enforce effective the use of Integrated Financial Management Information System (Ifmis) in the 35 local government councils.

The ministry’s chief director Ernest Ntchentche said that District commissioners [DC] as financial controllers, need to understand payment procedures through Ifmis so that they sign for things which they are conversant with, thereby tracking resources which are in their control. Hence, the ministry conducted a two-day training on Ifmis for top managers in local authorities from the Northern Region.

Last year in March, an audit report by the National Audit Office (NAO) revealed that almost K5.9 billion has gone unaccounted for in the June 2018 fiscal year. The audit report was presented to Parliament, exposing how the funds may have been abused, like payment vouchers that were not submitted for audit. Failure to provide other documents for audit inspection was also noted by the audit.

The accumulated missing 5.9bn is has been misused by these councils; Blantyre, Mzuzu, Lilongwe and Zomba, along with municipal councils Luchenza and Kasungu and 28 district councils, not to mention Mangochi town council.