IMF blasts Malawi for overspending

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Goodall Gondwe and Peter Mutharika

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has criticised the Malawi government for overspending in different sectors.

The development comes at a time when Malawi is reported to be sailing in financial woes following impacts of natural disaster that hit the country in past agriculture seasons.

The IMF has observed that despite the country beating its target on tax collection, Malawi is failing to stand strong financially due to overspending.

IMF team that visited Malawi led by Oral Williams disclosed a need for the country to rationalize expenditure.

Williams added that Malawi is spending more on few top government officials than rural citizens of the country.

“ Expenditures and commitments need to be kept within available funding to avoid the emergence of new payment arrears and increased recourse to domestic financing, which would undermine the fight against inflation,” said IMF in a statement.

Malawi finance minister Goodall Gondwe acknowledged the problem of overspending citing political interference as a major reason.

Gondwe disclosed that some government officials are entitled to too much benefits that demand huge sums of money.

One such official is President Peter Mutharika who is reported to be spending taxpayers money in United States of America by extending his stay in the country even though the United General Assembly which he went to attend ended over a week ago.

Meanwhile, the IMF has extended Malawi’s Extended Credit Facility (ECF) program to mid 2017.

The ECF was due to expire at the end of this year but it has been extended to allow time for Malawi to demonstrate achievement of new macroecomic targets set by the IMF.