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<strong>Public</strong> <strong>Financial</strong> <strong>Management</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>PRSP</strong> Implementation in Malawi<br />

The DDF is a (mostly donor funded) municipal development fund accessible<br />

only to rural districts. 22 Its allocation is partly <strong>for</strong>mula-based, with 30 percent<br />

equally distributed between districts and 70 percent allocated according to<br />

population and poverty indicators (GTZ 2004, 1; Boex et al. 2001, 18).<br />

The DDF is managed by the NLGFC and serves to channel funds to finance<br />

small-scale projects and activities emerging from the District Development<br />

Plan. In order to access project funding from the DDF certain minimum conditions<br />

apply (GFA 2005, 57):<br />

— A Director of Development and Planning, two Accounts Clerks and a<br />

Works Supervisor must be in place<br />

— Quarterly progress reports and monthly financial statements must<br />

be produced by the DA and sent to the Decentralisation Secretariat/Ministry<br />

of Local Government and Rural Development<br />

— An annual investment plan must be approved by the Assembly by the<br />

end of January each year<br />

— three quarters of the projects approved from the previous planning period<br />

must be successfully completed.<br />

It is the NLGFC’s responsibility to ensure that resources provided through<br />

the DDF are properly managed (Simwaka 2003, 5).<br />

There<strong>for</strong>e, in theory, the institutional setup of Malawi’s PFM system, as<br />

outlined in Figure 5, is relatively well designed Responsibilities are to a large<br />

extent clearly defined and distributed between actors. However, as seen in the<br />

next section, this <strong>for</strong>mal framework bears little relevance <strong>for</strong> actual PFM<br />

practice in Malawi.<br />

22 At the time the research was undertaken UNDP/UNCDF, the African Development Bank<br />

(AfDB), NORAD, DANIDA, CIDA and DFID among others (including non-governmental<br />

organisations) were channelling significant funds through the DDF to support Malawi’s development.<br />

(Gama et al. 2003, 30; GTZ 2004, 1; GFA 2005, 56). Currently, with strong<br />

support from German Development Cooperation, a Local Development Fund (LDF) is being<br />

drawn up, which will integrate the different funding mechanisms into one single financing<br />

mechanism <strong>for</strong> local governments in Malawi, open to towns and districts as well. The<br />

LDF will be managed by a special unit within NLGFC.<br />

German Development <strong>Institut</strong>e 73

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