Corruption in Malawi worries church, MCC says vice crippling development

The Malawi Council of Churches (MCC) has expressed regret at the high levels of corruption in public institutions. Hence, it has appealed to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to bring graft cases to the very end to uproot the vice in the civil service.

MCC, a grouping of Christian churches, has also expressed concern over what it calls the escalating crime where robbers have broken into people’s houses and institutional offices, thus it has called on the Malawi Police Service (MPS) to ensure security in the country.

In a statement signed by general secretary the Reverend Dr. Osborne Joda-Mbewe, MCC says the development was crippling development and bringing fear among the public.

Reads the statement in part: “It is also the council’s concern that high level corruption is taking place, in particular in the public sector where authorities and other staff connive with organised criminals to steal millions of public funds.

“This tendency has the potential to stall the development strides being experienced in the country and run counterproductive to government efforts, including the Economic Recovery Plan [ERP]. This development also threatens the trust that has recently been won back from Malawians and development partners.”

Joda-Mbewe said the authorities should restore the peace and order by bringing to book the culprits to avoid losing the trust that donors and development partners have in Malawi.

“It is with regret to note that lately crime seemed to have escalated. Most of this crime is in organised fashion where gangs of thieves break into homes and institutions and make away with varied items, crippling development and bringing fear amongst the general public.

“This crime increase also threatens foreign and local investments and is detrimental to any meaningful socioeconomic development,” he says.

The churches have also expressed concern over the standard of services delivered by the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) and water boards, saying “electricity power generation and water provision to Malawians is of the lowest standards ever experienced.”

Says Joda-Mbewe in the statement: “Tariffs on the two most important resources should also be checked against their provision and government must ensure service providers do not short-change consumers with exorbitant rates for products and services they rarely get and enjoy.”

On the Malawi and Tanzania border dispute over Lake Malawi, the churches say it was regrettable that while mediation is underway, some people, including the authorities in Tanzania, have taken advantage to abuse Malawians.

Joda-Mbewe says the council implores the Tanzanian authorities to crosscheck with diligence reports that some police, immigration and ordinary people have taken the illegal immigrants flashing exercise in their country as an opportunity to rape, beat and abuse Malawians.

In the statement, the council is also calling for enactment of vibrant and people-friendly laws to regulate licensing and the entire extractive industry in order for the country to benefit from the mining sector.

It also wants the church to soberly engage the electoral process towards, during, and after the elections in order to promote unity, peace and a spirit of reconciliation, hence calling upon government to exercise professionalism in the conduct of the electoral process and political parties to be responsible.

National Police spokesperson Rhoda Manjolo said police seeks to be a responsive organisation to the security needs of the public and admitted that there have been a number of robberies where people have connived with criminals especially those targeting movement of cash..

MCC’s statement comes barely two weeks after the Public Affairs Committee made a similar observation that corrupt practices remain high in various public institutions.

At that time, State House said government had introduced stringent monitoring mechanism of resources including the implementation of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (Ifmis), evaluation and monitoring of procurement and award of tenders and improved Automated Tax Administration.

Presidential press secretary Steven Nhlane said this year alone, government had saved $16 million from Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) and that by not using vehicles from public institutions during political meetings, the President was saving K45 million every month.

At the centre of corruption allegation, is the shooting of budget director Paul Mphwiyo on the night of September 13 at his house in Area 43 in Lilongwe which President Joyce Banda said was aimed to defeat Mphwiyo’s crusade against fraud and corruption in government.

ACB last Thursday arrested two public officers after receiving a complaint alleging that an officer from the Accountant General’s office was conniving with Malawi Police Service officers to corruptly defraud government of huge sums of money.

On Friday, eight donors—British High Commission, Delegation of the European Union to Malawi, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Embassy of Iceland, Embassy of Ireland, Embassy of Japan, Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway and Embassy of the United States of America— released a joint statement urging quick action on the several allegations that came flying into the public domain after the Mphwiyo gunning.