ORGANIZATION OF THE PRESENTATION

1. PUBLIC EXPENDITURE TRACKING STUDY IN THE MALAWI EDUCATION SYSTEMPART 1: SALARIES ADMINISTRATION AND ITS EFFECTS ON SERVICE DELIVERY IN PRIMARY SCHOOLSCommunity Based Monitoring Project - Malawi

2. ORGANIZATION OF THE PRESENTATION • Introduction and Background • Objectives of the Study • Methodological Approach • Results from the Study • Conclusions • Recommendations • Next Steps

3. Introduction to the Community Based Monitoring Project • The CBM Project is a four year project funded by DFID • Is part of the Performance, Evidence and Accountability (PEA) project where DFID also supports social accountability functions in several ministries in Malawi • Major partners to the project are Plan Malawi, Actionaid and CONGOMA • It works with 20 NGOs and CSOs in 8 districts where project is being piloted

4. OBJECTIVES OF THE COMMUNITY BASED MONITORING PROJECT • Enhance community participation in the budget process • Service delivery assessment • Budget monitoring • Increased use of evidence by planners in development planning (evidence based planning) • Capacity building of NGOs and CSO to better reach rural communities

5. Introduction to CBM …….contd • Major component of project is service delivery assessment at facility level • The major tool used is the Community Scorecard process – Scale 1 – 5 • Communities and Service Providers come up with a scorecard each on which feedback to each other is based • Assessment ends with a facility interface meeting and a Joint Work Plan agreed upon by service providers and users • A series of Interface Meetings at district and national level complete the process.

6. Sample Scorecard – Chikwina Health Centre

7. Input Tracking Scorecard for Lusito School, Kasungu District

8. INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES OF THE TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT • The CBM Project acquired funds from the Transparency and Accountability Project (TAP) to complement acquisition of Supply Side information that would help clarify service delivery concerns at the point of service • Is important because of poor access to financial info at various levels in the gov’t system • The major things looked at were: • Timeliness of salary administration and how it affects service delivery in primary schools • Flow of funds and its associated leakages from the Treasury to the Primary Schools

9. METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH • Three districts were purposively selected – one in each region • About 100 teachers were selected randomly in each district – total sample 300 • Zones were stratified between RURAL & URBAN zones from which schools were selected • Proportional probability to size was used to determine number of teachers selected from each zone • Individual and group interviews were conducted with teachers • Other actors consulted include District Education Managers, Primary Education Advisors, Parents Reps, Pupils and Teachers Spouses. • Data was generated from personal interviews, FGDs and Key Informant Interviews

10. RESULTS OF THE STUDY • 27th of the month is the official pay day for primary school teachers • 77% of teachers know about this official pay day • 18% do not know and 5% claim, surprisingly so, that there is no official day • Only 4.3% of the teachers met during personal interviews have ever received their salary on the official day • There are 2 major ways in which teachers receive salaries.

11. SALARY PAYMENT SYSTEMS • CASH SYSTEM is guided by the following: • Payment of salaries in cash (79%) • Payroll verification starts in the treasury every month & is completed on 18th of the month • Further verification at Divisional and District offices takes 10 days • Movement of cash from District to all zones in the district takes 1 week • Cash is taken to a zone by car with police escort by district accounts staff • Earliest teachers are paid is on 29th of the month • Salaries are mostly received btwn 29th and 4th of following month.

12. CASH SYSTEM ……contd • Cash is left in the hands of the Primary Education Advisor (PEA) who calls Head Teachers before hand to collect salaries on behalf of their schools • Money leaves hands of PEAs within one – two days • Head teachers usually release salaries to teachers within the day they collect it (97%) • PEAs spend about US$5 personal money per month to communicate to head teachers on salaries alone.(???)

13. MALSWICH SYSTEM • Is a new system introduced mid 2009 to solve cash security concerns • Verification of payroll is similar to the cash system • 35,000 teachers are currently registered on Malswitch but only 10,000 are receiving their salary through it (jan 2010) • The Ministry directly sends the payroll to the Malawi Savings Bank • Rather than send an electronic copy, it sends hard copies requiring retyping – causing further delays

14. MALSWITCH SYSTEM …..contd • The Malswitch card serves the following; • As an identification tool for the teachers – uses finger prints • Is used to check amount of salary due to the teacher • Cash is paid at the counter by a Bank Employee • Is not associated with a bank account • Is used on an ATM but mostly at Point Of Sale Machine (POSM) • Most areas do not have ATMs, therefore teachers queue to check balances and get paid • There is no official communication to teachers that their money is now available in the banks • There is a deduction of MK300 per withdrawal that teachers were not told about.

15. IMPLICATIONS OF SALARY ADMIN ON SERVICE DELIVERY - CASH SYSTEM • Both systems of payment are associated with delays – but Malswitch system is worse • The cash system pays teachers betwn 29th of current month to 4th of following month. • The Head teacher is away once every month to collect salaries. In some cases a fellow teacher escorts him/her (2 pple not available to teach) • PEAs further lose about US$5 of airtime to call head teachers (system leakage)

16. IMPLICATIONS OF MALSWITCH SYSTEM ON SERVICE DELIVERY • The Card System has, generally, a delay of 1 -2 days over the cash system (now getting worse as more people join the system) • Each teacher has to go to the bank to collect the money • For rural schools, it means a minimum of one day lost per teacher per month of contact with pupils • With network problems, queuing & data related hiccups plus personal factors, the 1 day is a bare minimum lost • Teachers also incur transport costs to collect the money at banks in town

17. GENERAL EFFECTS OF SALARY DELAYS ON TEACHING SERVICES • 51% of the teachers claim to continue teaching normally even when salaries delay • 49% say they reduce their contact with pupils because of the following; • Go to look for loans from the community to meet HH needs (interest rates as high as 100%) • Hide from creditors • Just absent themselves from school due to poor motivation • Shorten their classes to make up time for other money making activities

18. TEACHER BEHAVIOURS WHEN DELAYED SALARIES ARE PAID/ACCESSED • Take time out to repay their creditors • Some continue to hide from creditors • Quickly spend their money and start looking for new loan opportunities • Some decide to vent their frustration by spending time drinking till money is finished • 6.6% of pupils come late • 4.2% are absent altogether (esp btwn 27th - 4th)

19. EFFECTS ON TEACHING SERVICES • For any member of staff absent to collect salaries or due to salary delays, the following actions are done; • Junior Classes are combined (56% of the schools) • Junior Classes are asked to do sports or sing songs for long times (31% of the schools) • 12.7% postpone classes • Senior classes are given impromptu assignments or asked to copy notes with one pupil facilitating • PLWHA case studies

20. ESTIMATED TIME LOST

21. CONCLUSIONS • Malswitch System not suited to rural conditions, ok for urban schools • Only workable/practical if Point of Sale Machines or ATMs are introduced in rural areas • Both modes have system leakages (Airtime, transport & associated costs) • Maswitch system has greater time complications than cash system • Salary delays cause absenteism of teachers and pupils • Both systems make teachers unavailable at some time (Headteacher, All Teachers)

22. RECOMMENDATIONS • Salary administration needs to be decentralized to the districts • Associated capacity building of district education offices in management of finances • MoEST needs to institute more serious teacher monitoring mechanisms to track performance of teachers for both performance mgt and tracking absenteism • The Malswitch system needs to be restricted to urban schools as it leads to mass absenteism from rural schools

23. A girls only FGD

24. A boys FGD