BLANTYRE(MaraPost)—Joyce Banda administration has been praised by the International Monetary Fund (IFM) for prudence in the management of funds after the revelation that some unscrupulous citizens were tampering with the government’s financial system to swindle billions of Kwacha from the public purse.
In a statement on Wednesday, the IMF said Malawi government is prudently managing funds after the ‘Cashgate scandal’.
“I commend the Malawi government for trying its best to operate within the available resources,” said IMF mission Chief Tsidi Tsikata.
“The mission welcomes the accumulation of international reserves by the RBM and its plans to further boost the level of reserves during this year’s tobacco season in order to provide the economy with a buffer against exogenous shocks. This will also allow the RBM to effectively intervene in the foreign exchange market to manage excessive volatility in the exchange rate arising from the highly season pattern of private foreign exchange inflows,” he added.
However, IMF has warned the government of Malawi that it’s economy will remain fragile due to lack of direct budget support from development partners.
The donors under the Common Approach to Budgetary Support (CABS) are withholding their 150 million dollar budgetary support in the wake of the massive plundering of public resources at Capital Hill in Lilongwe.
Tsikata said government need to ensure that the central bank tightens monetary policies.
He said the IMF is also concerned that some parastatals like Admarc, NFRA, NOCMA and Mardef remain a liability to government as they continue making losses thereby draining the already scarce resources.
In his remarks Minister of Finance Maxwell Mkwezalamba said they will work on the recommendations as provided by the IMF and all other issues contained in the government action plan to correct the economic situation.
