A non governmental organisation, Her Liberty Malawi, has trained youth radio listening clubs at Senior Chief Chikowi’s area in Zomba in tracking utilisation of financial resources on development projects.
Speaking at Chikala Primary School, Her Liberty Executive Director, Caroline Mkandawire, urged the radio listening clubs to actively track development activities being implemented in their communities.
She observed that expenditure tracking is vital because it helps to know how much resources are being used on a project against the allocated resources.
“This also helps to monitor how long a project takes to complete,” Mkandawire added.
She also called on project duty bearers and other project implementors to first of all explain to beneficiary communities on financial resources allocated to a project, project duration so that communities should be knowledgeable of projects in their areas.
“It is important that communities should be briefed on a project before it is being implemented because this gives them a clear picture of the intended project otherwise failure to do this gives room to mismanagement of project funds, ” Mkandawire explained.
One of the members of Mwaiwathu Radio Listening club, Delia Jeremiya said the training was helpful because it has provided them with knowledge and skills on how to track project expenditure, monitor quality and duration.
She said it becomes difficult to track expenditure on a project when project implementors fail to brief beneficiary communities on full details of a project in terms of how much is allocated to a project and project duration.
Jeremiya observed that most communities had no idea of how much was allocated to projects and because there was no tracking mechanism such as engagement of radio listening clubs.
“This training is ideal and has build capacity that will help us to monitor projects in our areas,” she added.
Her Liberty Malawi is carrying out Public Expenditure Tracking project in Zomba with financial assistance from the National Democratic lnstitute (NDI) and engaging radio listening clubs is one of public expenditure tracking mechanism.
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