District Commissioner for Dowa, Alex Mdooko, has expressed concern over increasing number of ineffective Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Dowa saying their projects do not benefit people in the district.
Mdooko said the organisations are good at writing project proposals to donors but when the money comes, they enrich themselves at the expense of the poor in the district.
A mapping exercise which was conducted by the NGO Board in the district of Mangochi, Chikwawa, Mzimba and Dowa, revealed that a lot of NGOs’ money was being channeled towards district activities with no impact on the ground citing Dowa which has the NGO budget of Mk3.7 billion against Mk1.4 billion of the council.
Mdooko’s comment was expressed during a District executive council committee meeting held at the boma where an NGO, Women Agriculture Development Organisation (WADO), failed to explain on how it cleared out the mess surrounding fertilizer loans to its farmers in the areas of T/As Mponela and Kayembe in the district.
WADO’s new project was rejected by Dowa council which demanded the organisation to first produce a report on how it handled the fertilizer loan scam.
Its chief executive director, Raphael Adam, instead of bringing a report as summoned by the council during its September seating, brought in a court judgement sheet which cleared him out of the mess.
NICE Trust district civic Education Officer for Dowa, Vincent Mbenjere asked the council to scrutinise all NGOs in the district, observing that some NGOs do not even have an office.
In one of the previous full council meeting held at the Dowa boma, Minister of Gender, Children, Disabilities and Social Welfare Dr. Jean Nachika Kalilani asked the council to summon all NGOs working in the district to explain their budget lines and projects.
Kalilani, lamented that a lot of Malawians’ pictures are being displayed in America and Europe for support, but the support do not reach the poor.
