International charity, Oxfam, has asked the government to do more in terms of cutting expenditure and giving no room for corruption as it implements the 2018/19 K1.5 trillion budget Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe unveiled two weeks ago.
It also says the government should continue to exercise realism in its planning framework to ensure that its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projections are inclusive and on point.
Oxfam, which did an analysis of the budget focusing on inequality, says there is an urgent need to ensure that public resources are allocated and spent efficiently to address inequalities and alleviate poverty.
“Given the limited fiscal space, the focus of government should diligently be on cutting waste, plugging public finance leakages through corruption and illicit financial flows as part of ensuring improved efficiency and effectiveness of public expenditures. These are particularly important, especially in decisively walking the talk in bolstering efforts against all odds,” reads a presentation Oxfam Acting Country Director, Lingalireni Mihowa, made to Members of Parliament (MPs) in Lilongwe on Thursday.
According to Oxfam, 29 out of 47 countries in Africa are showing a decline in the distributional effectiveness of their fiscal policy. Malawi is among those countries.
The analysis observes that, to ensure equality, political commitment coupled with targeted investments, which are best identified through the budget, are crucial.
“The analysis observed that domestic and foreign debt interest payments will also continue to consume a lion’s share of the government’s revenue at K182.9 billion; it is still growing. It is worth noting that the interest payments alone are already absorbing 11 percent of the national budget, much more than the agriculture budgetary allocation and almost double the health budgetary allocation,” reads the document.
It adds: “This is a lot of money that could have helped make a bigger difference in other productive sectors of the economy that serve the majority of the citizens’ livelihoods and welfare such as agriculture, health, education and social support sectors.”
Chairperson of the Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament, Rhino Chiphiko, said the budget is meant to assist few individuals.
“When you look at this budget, it does not have any clue with regards to whether we are going to improve the lives of the poor. It is a very disheartening budget, a budget that has not been formulated on any basis,” he said.
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