Malawi slips on corruption index
Malawi has slightly moved from 35 to 34 points on Transparency International (TI) 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, but has maintained position 110 out of 180 countries assessed.
The assessment, according to the TI statement released on January 30, means that despite several efforts, the country remains highly corrupt.
Main challenges hampering progress for Malawi and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa include lack of integrity among the political elite, failure to deal with procurement flaws and sanction as well as prosecute any abuses of funds for emergencies like Covid-19 recovery funds, according to the report.
Reads part of the report: “Criminals are often aided by the complicity of corrupt public officials, police officers, prosecutors and judges, which allows them to operate with impunity.
“Where corruption levels are high, money and influence may decide which cases are prioritised or dismissed, who gets punished and who gets to walk free.”
Commenting on the assessment, Integrity Platform national coordinator Jeff Kabondo, whose institution works with TI in gathering input for the index, said Malawi needs to be more radical in its approach towards addressing both administrative and political corruption.
He said: “Anti-corruption mechanisms may not have been radical enough to bring significant changes in areas such as prevention, prosecution and recovery of assets. Issues of procurement are indeed at the centre of most corruption scandals.”
In a separate interview, Human Rights Defenders Committee (HRDC) chairperson Gift Trapence said there has been lack of real commitment for reforms of the civil service, including procurement policies and laws.
“As long as the Public Service Reforms agenda is ignored, the system will not be rebutted to respond to the rot that has been aiding corruption. We need a system that is not prone to abuse and taken advantage of,” he said.
But Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs chairperson Peter Dimba said it was saddening that the score has gone down despite Malawi making “tremendous progress in the fight against corruption” in the past year.
He cited Parliament’s move to amend the Corrupt Practices Act on consent, creation of the Financial Crimes Court, arrests of high profile personalities and the public’s increased demand for accountability from the duty-bearers as some positive steps.
“However, these achievements might have been overshadowed by the intensified fight-back of corruption epitomised by the arrest of the Anti-Corruption Bureau [ACB] director general [Martha Chizuma] and the non-cooperation of some offices to frustrate the ACB’s efforts in the fight,” said Dimba.
Minister of Justice Titus Mvalo did not respond to our queries yesterday, but he is on record as having said government is amending procurement laws to curb corruption which mostly occurs through procurement.
Mvalo said: “You find the government procures goods at very highly inflated prices, and sometimes you find that bidders are the same people but bidding under different companies.
Malawi scored 32 points in 2018 and was in position 120 before moving backwards to 31 points in 2019 and ranking 123 and then moved to position 129 in 2020 with 30 points before climbing 19 places in 2021 to position 110 with 35 points.
