State-controlled Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) is struggling with a cumulative debt of K600 million (US$40 million) which has negatively impacted on the broadcaster’s operations, MBC Director General Patrick Khoza disclosed last Thursday. The debt is double the amount of subvention it got from government this year. Mr Khoza said government’s funding is not enough to support the operations of the institution. He appealed to the government to bail out the institution by offsetting the K600 million debt.
He said the initial draft estimates, which the corporation asked government to fund it was about K1.1 billion, but Parliament only approved K300 million. Mr Khoza said the K300 million was only supplementing what MBC collects in revenue through its business department. “We collect about K350 million per year, adding K300 million which we got from government leaves us with a shortfall of over K400 million. Where do we get the K400 million?” he asked.
Mr Khoza said every month MBC receives K25 million from government, but said it needs about K34 million for its wage bill only. “Every month, we have a deficit of K36 million. It means that we need more than K40 million for us to operate properly,” he said.
As a result of the financial challenges, MBC has of late been experiencing broadcasting disruptions with its two radio stations going off the air at times. Mr Khoza attributed the disruptions to power cuts due to load shedding, unpaid Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) bills and generally lack of money to buy diesel for backup generators.
However Escom spokesperson Kitty Chinseu, while refusing to disclose the amount MBC owes the company citing customer confidentiality, parried away the load shedding accusations. She said MBC like police and central hospitals could only be affected by power failure only when the problem is nationwide. “MBC is a sensitive organisation. It is our priority line. What they are saying is not true,” she said.
Reacting to the development, Minister of Information and Civic Education Leckford Thotho Mwanza said MBC was receiving enough money, but it had a lot of accumulated debt from the past two years when the institution was not be given government allocation. “MBC has a lot of debt in arrears. The money that the corporation is receiving from government is paying off some of the arrears. It is not true that they are not getting enough,” Mr Thotho said.
(Source: The Daily Times)
