An Ipor survey has shown that less than 25 percent of the population believe that politicians, including the presidency, are not corrupt while the majority think otherwise.
The resuts of the survey, which the Institute of Public Opinion and Research (Ipor) conducted in March 2024, shows that seven percent of the population perceive the presidency as not being corrupt.
Government, however, has dismissed the Ipor findings that the majority of respondents feel the presidency is corrupt, saying corruption is a complex matter that cannot be captured by mere perceptions.
The survey findings come barely two years after an Afrobarometer survey found that 66 percent of Malawians held the view that corruption has worsened under the Tonse Alliance administration.
And according to Ipor’s survey results, conducted in the country’s 27 districts excluding Likoma, 32 percent of Malawians perceive that the President and officials from his office are ‘all’ corrupt while 19 percent perceive ‘most of them’ as being corrupt.
This is apart from 31 percent of Malawians perceiving that ‘some’ of the President’s officials are corrupt while 11 percent of respondents said they do not know.
Members of Parliament (MPs) have not been spared in the perception survey with 93 percent of Malawians perceiving them as being as corrupt as the presidency.
According to the survey, 25 percent of Malawians perceive MPs as ‘all’ being corrupt while 21 percent perceive ‘most’ of them as corrupt and another 39 percent perceiving ‘some’ as being corrupt. Only eight percent of the survey’s respondents said they do not know.
Going by these findings, it means a majority of Malawians have less trust in their elected MPs on issues of corruption.
The same perceptions trickle down to councillors who are only trusted by eight percent of the population that they are not corrupt. Twenty percent perceive them as ‘all’ being corrupt, 20 percent perceive ‘most’ of them as corrupt and 45 percent perceive ‘some’ as corrupt.
Overall, the survey findings mean elected leaders that make up the arm of the government machinery are less trusted by the population on their state of being corrupt or not.
But Minister of Information and Digitisation Moses Kunkuyu in a written response last week laughed off the survey findings.
He argued that by measuring perceptions of corruption as opposed to corruption itself, particularly in the midst of economic challenges that Malawians are going through, the survey findings may simply be reinforcing existing stereotypes and clichés established based on acts of past governments.
Said Kunkuyu: “If guilt in criminality was perception-based, then everyone would be behind bars now. It is clear that there have never been serious efforts to fight corruption as is the case now under President Chakwera.
“Even on the Corruption Perception Index [CPI], we are not getting worse as one would read from this local survey. We are not where the President desires yet, but strides are being made”.
CPI data by Transparency International published in January this year shows that Malawi is ranked 115 out of 180 countries with a score of 30.
Transparency International ranks 180 countries globally in regards to the CPI, scoring them on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
Kunkuyu, who is the official government spokesperson, further argued that it is only under the current Chakwera-led administration that the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has unprecedented independence, staffing and funding.
But Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira in a separate interview said it is important for the government to take seriously the citizens’ perceptions as they reflect what they think of their leaders.
“Generally, these perceptions are coming from increasing reports of rumours of theft, fraud, nepotism and the realisation of unexplained accumulation of wealth by some of our leaders.
“The selective prosecution of corruption cases and questionable discontinuance of high profile cases may also force Malawians to speculate that there are others within the corridors of power benefitting from this,” he said.
Kambwandira, therefore, said the country’s leadership needs to be proactive and demonstrate strong commitment with matching actions as regards fighting graft, emphasising that in the absence of such,
Malawians will be left to make their own conclusions.
At the launch of the 2024 Governance and Corruption Survey on July 2 2024 in Blantyre, ACB director of corruption prevention Mary Phombeya said despite numerous interventions in the fight against corruption, it continues to worsen.
Among others, she attributed poor public sector service delivery, as a fertile ground for corruption.
National Advocacy Platform chairperson Benedicto Kondowe in a written response said Ipor’s perception survey reflects deep-rooted concerns about governance in Malawi with several factors at play.
He said: “Firstly, there has been a history of corruption scandals involving public officials [President and officials from his offices and MPs], which has eroded public trust in political leadership. When high profile cases of mismanagement or misuse of public funds go unresolved or result in minimal consequences, it reinforces the belief that corruption is pervasive among those in power”.
Kondowe said the other factor would be the public’s experience with public service delivery where on numerous occasions they are asked for bribes from office bearers.
“In summary, the perception of widespread corruption among political leaders stems from both past and present scandals, coupled with poor service delivery and limited accountability mechanisms.
“Restoring public trust will require decisive and transparent action against corruption, as well as improved governance that meets the needs of Malawians,” he said.
According to the 2023 CPI data, Malawi’s corruption fight has weakened in the previous 10 years dating back to 2012.
The data shows that in 2012, Malawi scored 37 points but, during the 10 years under review, it has fallen by three points, scoring 34 and eventually landing on position 115 of the 180 countries assessed.
The 34 points were maintained from 2022, but the position has further slipped from 110 to 115 this year
