USI takes corrupt officers head on
Vice-President Michael Usi has given the Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change two months to present him with a list of suspected corrupt officers to take “necessary action”.
The Second Citizen, who is also Minister of Natural Resources and Climate Change, made the daring demand in Lilongwe yesterday during the launch of a study on price management in the forestry sector.
Said Usi: “Corruption must be eradicated like a cancerous tumour by removing all corrupt officials from the system. Corrupt officials will exploit loopholes in our systems if left unchecked.”
Turning to the ministry’s Principal Secretary Yusuf Nkungula, who was in attendance, he tasked him to provide the list of corrupt individuals.
Usi’s reaction followed findings by local think-tank the Mwapata Institute and the Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests which identified corruption and weak governance systems as key challenges to the development of the local forestry sector.
Titled ‘A comparative assessment of plantation fees, prices and options analysis to improve revenue generation in Malawi’, the study highlighted corruption, fuelled by illegal logging and lack of transparency, as hindering the development of Malawi’s forestry sector.
“Further, expert and stakeholder consultation claimed that it is difficult to fight corruption in Malawi because some political/economic elites are part of the complex network of corruption,” reads part of the report of the study co-financed by the United States Agency for International Development and the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Reacting to the ultimatum, Nkungula said he could not definitively say whether he would meet the deadline considering that corruption cases are sensitive, complex and usually take time to prosecute.
He said: “It’s difficult for me to give a specific date. When you’re [formally] accusing someone of corruption, you need to have concrete evidence. It usually takes a long time to gather the evidence required to secure a conviction.”
This is the second time in a week that Usi has publicly condemned corruption. Last week, he pledged to intervene after a German investor told him hthat e was on the verge of pulling out of the country due to alleged corruption by public officers.
The Vice-President’s acknowledgement comes at a time Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index data shows that Malawi’s fight against corruption has weakened in the 10 years dating back to 2012.
The Mwapata study also found that outdated and undervalued forest management fees and royalties are hindering the sustainable management and efficient use of forest resources in Malawi, limiting the sector’s contribution to the country’s development.
Presenting the study, Mwapata research fellow and principal author of the report Maggie Munthali noted that concession fees in Malawi were significantly lower than those in neighbouring countries such as Zambia.
The concession fees were estimated to be five and 20 times lower than regional peers and the study reveals that the forestry sector’s contribution to the national gross domestic product (GDP) stands at a paltry 0.1 percent.
To address these challenges, the study recommends that the government urgently revise the 2010 gazetted forestry fees and royalties.
