Campaign funding faces fresh scan
The political and campaign financing regulatory regime has come under scrutiny amid observations that for 30 years there has been zero implementation, making the electoral democracy framework to gravitate towards kleptocracy.
In an analysis by governance expert Henry Chingaipe at the recent Malawi Law Society (MLS) conference, it is noted that lack of implementation of the regulatory framework has contributed to corruption in the public sector, especially through public procurement and contract management to generate money to finance politics.
Failure to implement the Political Parties Act (PPA) has also led to competitive clientelism where access to political power is largely based on ability to mobilise and spend money rather than ideas and capabilities for transformation, notes the analysis.
Said Chingaipe: “It enables money laundering as illicit money gets pumped into the economy through unregulated campaign financing but also promotes patrimonial and oligarchic political parties, leading to serious deficits of intra-party democracy and a bankruptcy of futuristic and progressive ideas.”
On private funding, he said the law does not spell out what the registrar should be doing with political party declarations made under s.27(2) of the PPA and that the thresholds of donations requiring disclosure are deemed to be too low.
Said Chingaipe: “The law allows political parties and politicians to solicit and receive money from foreign interests in ways that risk foreign influence in the running of government affairs and public procurement of works and high value supplies.”
Commenting on public financing, the governance pundit wondered why closure of accounting books is done well before the campaign period is over and submission of audited statements by eve of polling, essentially ignoring post polling activities.
“In cases of breaches established by audit, the law requires the Secretary to the Treasury [ST] to wait for a recommendation from the registrar for action to be taken when the ST is a primary recipient of the auditor’s report,” said Chingaipe.
In a communique after the meeting, MLS president Patrick Mpaka noted the inadequacy of regulation pertaining to political party and campaign financing, but said the PPA was key at arresting perceptions and actual acts of State capture, electoral and political corruption.
He said while the passing of the Act was a welcome development in terms of political party financing regulation in Malawi, there still lies significant gaps in the regulatory system that the Act has failed to resolve.
Said Mpaka: “For instance, the Political Parties Act still allows for anonymous donations while it does not provide a cap on donations and only prohibits hand-outs from private donations and not public ones.
“Further, there is significant weakness in terms of the implementation of the Act itself with the Registrar of Political Parties, an office established under the Act, failing to fully carry out its duties since its establishment.”
Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) executive director Kizito Tenthani said Registrar General Chikumbutso Namelo, who is acting as Registrar of Political Parties, was better placed to comment on the matter.
But Namelo said the ones who made the presentation are better placed to comment on their analysis. Nevertheless, he acknowledged the contents of the analysis.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Justice spokesperson Frank Namangale has said recruitment of the registrar is at an advanced stage, such that once all processes are done, people will be able to access declarations.
He said: “Interviews were done in January and the process for recruitment is almost through. About the proposals on the law, the ministry is open for engagement from stakeholders, views are always welcome.
“Moving forward, we should expect some changes.”
The PPA provides for regulating the registration, financing and functioning of political parties, which include a provision that demands political parties to declare donations to the registrar.
