{"id":60045,"date":"2024-03-07T03:43:22","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T03:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ombudsman-at-donors-mercy"},"modified":"2024-03-07T03:55:29","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T03:55:29","slug":"ombudsman-at-donors-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ombudsman-at-donors-mercy","title":{"rendered":"Ombudsman at donors\u2019 mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. <\/strong><\/span>The Ombudsman\u2019s role as a public protector risks being compromised if it fails to access over K850 million to cover the deficit in its budget, the office has said.<\/p>\n

The office says its ideal operations budget for the 2024-25 financial year is pegged at K1.6 billion, but its Other Recurrent Transactions (ORT) allocation in the K5.98 trillion national budget, that Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda presented in Parliament on February 23, is K749 million.<\/p>\n

MALERA\u2014We are working on grant proposals<\/b>Ombudsman Grace Malera told the cluster of Legal Affairs and Government Assurances committees of Parliament last week that her office has turned to donors to cover the deficit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will intensify mobilisation of the resources to supplement ORT and cover the budget deficit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working on grant proposals to be submitted to the European Union, the British High Commission, the [United Nations Development Programme] and the [United States Agency for International Development],\u201d Malera said.<\/p>\n

She added that budget deficits, underfunding and erratic disbursement of funds have crippled her office the past years. Malera then appealed to the lawmakers to engage relevant authorities for more support to her office, which she said has had no funding in June, September and November 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis forced us to accumulate arrears to the tune of K86 million, which are supposed to be settled before the end of March,\u201d the Ombudsman said.<\/p>\n

Co-chairperson for the cluster committee Albert Mbawala promised that the parliamentarians will engage relevant authorities to lobby for funds to the Ombudsman\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have taken the issues raised by the Ombudsman seriously. We will ask Treasury for special arrangements to fund critical institutions like the Ombudsman and other governance entities,\u201d Mbawala said.<\/p>\n

He charged that it was not proper for the public protector to be accumulating arrears for contractual obligations, utilities, rental service charges, and basic office requirements like stationery.<\/p>\n

During her appearance before the cluster committee, Malera said her office has handled 3,200 individual complaints over maladministration acts by public institutions and or officials and resolved 451 complaints against the target of 85, representing a 69 percent increase in handled complaints.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been a 25 percent decrease in the number of resolved cases due to the inadequate resources disbursed for complaints.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the operational activities were not carried out, and targets were not met,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Ombudsman added that 186 complaints were concluded and are pending the implementation of remedial actions by government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).<\/p>\n

She further said her office carried out inquiries and issued 44 determinations, against a target of 100 determinations, representing a 300 precedent increase from 2022\u201323, when the office issued 11 determinations.<\/p>\n

As per tradition, MDAs have been engaging committees of Parliament to explain how they utilised resources they got in the current budget and plans for the next financial year.<\/p>\n

In very rare cases have MDAs expressed total satisfaction with their allocations in the next budget and take advantage of the meetings to lobby for more.<\/p>\n

So far, several MDAs that have appeared before the committees, including the Malawi Electoral Commission and the Anti- Corruption Bureau, have asked the lawmakers to push for their ceilings to be raised.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Malawi<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. The Ombudsman\u2019s role as a public protector risks being compromised if it fails to access over K850 million to cover the deficit in its budget, the office has said. The office says its ideal operations budget for the 2024-25 financial year is pegged at K1.6 billion, but its Other Recurrent Transactions (ORT) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":60044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233,371,234],"class_list":["post-60045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-malawi"],"yoast_head":"\nOmbudsman at donors\u2019 mercy - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Ombudsman\u2019s role as a public protector risks being compromised if it fails to access over K850 million to cover the ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ombudsman-at-donors-mercy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ombudsman at donors\u2019 mercy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Ombudsman\u2019s role as a public protector risks being compromised if it fails to access over K850 million to cover the ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ombudsman-at-donors-mercy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-07T03:43:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-07T03:55:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2024\/03\/sm_1709770990.502507.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ombudsman-at-donors-mercy#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ombudsman-at-donors-mercy\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ombudsman at donors\u2019 mercy\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-07T03:43:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-07T03:55:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ombudsman-at-donors-mercy\"},\"wordCount\":534,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ombudsman-at-donors-mercy#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2024\/03\/sm_1709770990.502507.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Malawi\",\"Malawi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ombudsman-at-donors-mercy#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ombudsman-at-donors-mercy\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/ombudsman-at-donors-mercy\",\"name\":\"Ombudsman at donors\u2019 mercy - 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