Councils’ improve on performance in delivery of services as only two fail the test
The 2021 Local Authority Performance Assessment (LAPA) has shown that 26 districts out of 28 have improved their performance compared to last year.
In this year’s assessment, Mulanje is topping the list of the best performing councils.
The local authorities performed well in development planning, access to information, procurement management, physical progress reporting as well as monitoring and evaluation.
Minister of Local Government, Blessings Chinsinga announced the official 2021 LAPA results on Monday to reporters in Lilongwe.
He said the average performance for local authorities in 2020 was at 41 percent compared to 61 per cent in 2021.
“This is a sign that local authorities as vehicle for delivery of services are responding to incentives the LAPA bringing through Performance Based Grant (PBG) which we hope will be fully institutionalized,” he said.
Chinsinga said only two districts of Blantyre and Ntcheu did not perform well as they did not comply with the Minimum Access Conditions (MACs) because they spent District Development Fund (DDF) on ineligible expenses.
He said the LAPA implies that local authorities that fail to meet MACs will not receive performance based grant.
Chinsinga further said with the two districts they will not proceed to a trigger assessment and subsequently will not receive the grant this year.
The most improved local authorities include Phalombe, Chiladzulu, Machinga, Mmbelwa, Mangochi and Dowa.
In order to incentivize performance in the local authorities, government is implementing a five year Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) project financed by World Bank to the tune of US$100million.
In 2021/22, GESD project disbursed K4.5billion to 22 eligible local authorities.
Chinsinga said this year, 2022/2023 financial year, the project plans to disburse K11.7 billion as PBG meant for infrastructure development projects in the local authorities.
The local authorities are granted funds based on their performance during LAPA.
Those that scores less in performance receive less while those that scores high receive relatively higher grant.
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