7 January 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican government has increased the sums sent directly to the country's 128 districts from the state budget, and has abandoned the initial policy of sending the same lump sum to each district, irrespective of size.
Interviewed in the latest issue of the weekly paper "O Pais", the Minister of Planning and Development, Aiuba Cuereneia, said that the money was now being distributed taking three factors into account - the number of people living in a district, its size, and its poverty index.
When these funds were first distributed in 2006, they consisted simply of a lump sum of seven million meticais (about 280,000 US dollars) per district. But now districts were receiving up to twice this sum, depending on how large, how populous and how poor they are, said Cuereneia.
This money, the Minister stressed, 'is intended to produce food and generate income, and we have been improving the selection and choice of the projects that can meet these requirements".
However, a survey of 29 districts showed that the 2006 money had mostly not been used for these purposes. 31 per cent of the money had been spent on social infrastructure, 28 per cent on improving the offices of the district administrations themselves, 24 on economic projects, and 11 per cent on economic infrastructures.
Cuereneia admitted that the district governments were under a great deal of pressure to build classrooms or health posts, even though this is the task of the central and provincial government.
"Recognising this pressure that the district administrators and the consultative councils are under, for 2008 a lump sum of 2.3 million meticais will be given to each district for work on infrastructures", said Cuereneia. "So they will have the money for job creation and income generation, plus 2.3 million meticais for road building and rehabilitation etc".
The problems detected in the use of the seven million meticais per district in 2006 "were not diversions of the money for personal use", said the Minister. "It was spending it on things other than what it had been intended for".
Cuereneia wanted the funds to be used to stimulate private sector activities in the districts. "We know that in our districts the private sector doesn't exist. It's not decapitalised because it never existed and never had capital".
"When we talk of associations of peasants or of artisans, this money is there to support these people develop their activities", he declared.
Key to the management of these local investment funds are the district consultative councils. "In principle each locality is represented on the council, by people with a certain prominence in the district", said Cuereneia
He insisted that these people are elected by the communities themselves without any interference from the government or the district administrator. The government's role, said Cuereneia, was to terrain the Consultative Councils, some of whose members are illiterate.
"They must learn to read and write so that the can contribute more and better in discussing the district development plans", he added.
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