Government promises real-time CDF tracking dashboard amid K1.1 trillion rollout

By Edwin Mauluka

The reformed Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is entering its final implementation phase, with the government filling key staffing positions across councils and establishing Constituency Development Committees (CDCs) nationwide.

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Ben Phiri, announced the developments on Wednesday in Lilongwe during a joint press briefing with Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Shadric Namalomba.

Phiri said the government had moved to address chronic understaffing in local councils through the recruitment of permanent and qualified personnel.

“For the first time in Malawi, all councils have qualified engineers,” said Phiri. “All acting director positions within councils have also been filled with substantive, qualified directors to strengthen public oversight.”

According to the minister, the government plans to fill 687 positions under the reformed CDF structure, including 228 accountants and procurement officers to support operations at constituency level.

He said additional positions for Constituency Works Supervisors, Constituency Account Assistants and Constituency Assistant Procurement Officers have already been advertised as part of the nationwide rollout.

Phiri also confirmed that CDCs have now been constituted across the country. The committees include representatives from the clergy, traditional leaders, councillors, Members of Parliament and civil society organisations.

Training on the new CDF guidelines has already been conducted in all councils, he said.

To strengthen accountability and financial oversight, the Accountant General has opened a dedicated CDF pool account at the Reserve Bank of Malawi, while councils have opened accounts with commercial banks to facilitate the disbursement of funds.

“The projects that we are going to implement are demand-driven and not supply-driven,” said Phiri.

The government also plans to launch a publicly accessible digital dashboard that will allow citizens to monitor the progress of projects in real time across all constituencies.

“The dashboard will display real-time progress of works being undertaken across all constituencies in the country to ensure that taxpayers can directly follow how their money is being utilised,” he said.

According to Phiri, the platform will include a public portal where citizens can access project documentation and implementation updates at every stage.

He said the reforms introduce stricter systems covering planning, budgeting, procurement, implementation, monitoring and reporting.

In a further anti-corruption measure, all councils have signed memoranda of understanding with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), committing themselves to transparency during project implementation.

Phiri added that all local authorities have developed cash flow plans that will be integrated into the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS).

The minister said funding disbursements under the reformed CDF will now be tied to council performance, adopting a model already used under the World Bank-funded Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) programme.

“This performance-based approach is new to CDF, but it is not new to local authorities,” said Phiri. “Projects under GESD have registered above a 90 percent success rate. It is therefore our hope that the CDF will be in capable hands.”

He warned that underperforming councils would be expected to improve before accessing further funding.

In the 2026/2027 financial year, the government allocated K1.145 trillion to the reformed CDF — translating to about K5 billion per constituency — a sharp increase from the previous K200 million allocation.

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