JOURNALISTS HAILED FOR ‘SAVING TAX PAYER’ S MONEY’

By Aamon Butao 

Journalists in the country have been applauded for saving tax payers’ money for digging deeper into public finance management.

 This has been revealed during an investigative journalism capacity building workshop in Salima organized by a consortium of Oxfam, Economics Association of Malawi (ECAMA) and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) with funding from European Union.

Speaking during the event, Media and Communications Lead for Oxfam, Daudi Kayisi, said media practitioners have brought change to the nation on public finance management.

According to Kayisi, duty bearers are now handling public finances with care by using all the resources for their intended purposes.

Kayisi said the consortium’s public finance management project is engaging journalists to follow how public funds are used in the public sector and fish out all malpractices of funds mismanagement if found.

He said Oxfam, ECAMA and LUANAR are delighted to see that through the training they have been engaging journalists so that they can professionally write stories of public funds management in councils and ministries.

He added that journalists are able to follow up on stagnant projects where funds were already released.

 The lead media and communications officer said, through reporting, they have made other duty bearers to be responsible when using tax payers’ money well.

He said the fear is that if tax payers’ money is not well managed poverty will continue to be a problem and the country will not develop.

In his remarks, investigative journalism trainer Ephraim Munthali said media personnel should keep their eyes wide open on how public funds are managed.

He encouraged journalists to investigate more if they feel tax payers’ money is abused for the betterment of the country. 

He added that journalists should make sure that the resources are benefiting Malawians.