Public procuring and disposing entities (PDEs) are struggling to migrate to electronic procurement platform rolled out on April 1 2026 to boost efficiency with just one out of 175 making headway, The Nation has established.
Public procurement accounts for nearly 70 percent of the resources allocated in the national budget and, ironically, half of the same is lost through procurement corruption; hence, Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) ordered PDEs to migrate to e-procurement by April 1 2026.
By close of business yesterday, PPDA had not yet responded to The Nation questionnaire on the status, but information on its website showed that Electricity Generation Company of Malawi (Egenco) is the only one that has migrated to the Malawi National Electronic Procurement System (MANePS).
Further, information published on April 27 indicates that PPDA had intensified its nationwide rollout of hands-on support to PDEs to facilitate the successful use of MANePS.
“The Authority remains committed to supporting all PDEs in meeting the 30 April deadline and ensuring that the full implementation of MANePS, which becomes mandatory on 1 May, is achieved seamlessly across the country,” reads the post.
serious questions.
| Nation
The May 1 date is in sharp contrast to the directive by Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation Joseph Mwanamvekha that all PDEs should migrate by April 1 2026.
Reacting to the development, yesterday, Centre for Social Transparency and Accountability executive director Willy Kambwandira said digitisation of procurement directly threatens entrenched interests that benefit from opacity, discretion and manual loopholes.
He said: “While capacity constraints are a convenient explanation, the reality is that government PDEs are reluctant to submit to real time oversight, audit trails and reduced opportunities for manipulation.
“The development raises serious questions about political will, enforcement of the directive and preparedness of oversight bodies such as PPDA to compel compliance. It risks perpetuating systemic leakage and undermining public trust.”
In a separate interview, public expenditure tracking expert Mavuto Bamusi noted that the situation reflects the presence of elements of sabotage to reforms in procurement, which further slow down plans for economic recovery and national development.
He said: “Malawi will continue to lose significant sums of public funds through corruption which happens through bad procurements.”
University of Malawi macroeconomics lecturer Edward Leman said given the scale of resource leakages in the procurement system, MANePs needed to be fast-tracked.
On his part, Economist Milward Tobias noted that the slow migration may mean that PPDA did not prepare consumers of its services in good time and good time is not when PPDA launched the system.
Procurement specialist Alinafe Malisawa said large-scale digital transitions in public procurement systems often face resistance and inertia, particularly in environments where manual processes have been deeply entrenched for years.
During the launch of MANePS, Secretary to the Treasury Cliff Chiunda said the new system would enhance transparency, accountability and efficiency in public spending, and urged controlling officers to take a leading role in ensuring full compliance and migration to the digital platform.
