The massive looting of finances at Capital Hill has eroded donor confidence in Malawi said Minister of Finance Maxwell Mwezalamba.
However, he said restoring donor confidence will only happen if all the leakages that allowed the looting of public resources are sealed.
Said Mkwezalamba: “I am coming into this position (Finance Minister) when the country is facing a number of challenges, one of which is to restore donor confidence following the looting of public resources at Capital Hill. I would like to assure you that I am very committed to get to the root of the problem and have it sorted out, because failure to do that will have catastrophic consequences for the country.”
Mkwezalamba was speaking during the official opening of The Open Development for Evidence Based Policy workshop held in Lilongwe on Tuesday.
The workshop was organised to build on Malawi’s commitment to aid transparency and management which has been demonstrated through the establishments of Aid Management Platform (AMP) in the Ministry of Finance.
Through the AMP all stakeholders will be able to locate on the map all the development projects taking place in the country through the geo-coding initiative.
“The launch of AMP marks yet another milestone in the open development agenda as all key stakeholders will have direct access to development aid data. This portal will also help us to stop abuse of public resources and our partners will be able to know how we are using their donations with ease,” said Mkwezalamba.
He said greater transparency on the part of government and its cooperating partners is critical to ensuring that the open development agenda is achieved.
United Nations resident coordinator Mia Seppo said that her organisation has provided support for Malawi’s primary and tracking mechanism for aid activities, the AMP since 2009.
