Malawi’s laissez faire attitude to ‘everything’ is dangerous
By JOSEPH KAYIRA | 25 SEPTEMBER 2023
Operating under panic and in chaos is becoming a new normal for some government institutions in Malawi. Most of us have come across a situation where government officials behave as if the Ministry, Department or Agency (MDAs) they are working for is a family business or worse still, a personal estate. MDAs have become sleepy places where it is business as usual at the expense of Malawi’s ailing economy.
That is why no one wants to talk about progress in these offices. It is this laissez faire attitude to issues of national importance that is perpetuating corruption, poverty and derailing development. At a time when development partners, donors and well-wishers think we shouldn’t be going down that dangerous path, those who benefit from this chaos are dragging us down by their inefficiencies for us to remain in the vicious cycle of poverty.
What is particularly disturbing is how there seems to be a well-structured system – though informal but effective – that is benefitting some people in MDAs and is apparently deep-seated. This is what is derailing government business; and this is another reason corruption is so difficult to uproot. Everyone is blaming everyone. There are fat cats out there who know these weaknesses and are taking advantage of these weak structures to milk government of its hard-earned resources. Any wonder that even corruption cases are going nowhere?
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has been frustrated in many ways. Its firebrand director general, Martha Chizuma was arrested under bizarre circumstances. Her arrest received a barrage of condemnations from the civil society, the donors and the opposition. They all said her arrest was in bad faith.
Last year, the ACB presented a report to President Lazarus Chakwera highlighting how some individuals allegedly received money from a British national and businessman, Mr Zuneth Sattar. The Bureau found that a total of 53 public officers and former public officers allegedly received money from Mr Sattar in the eight months between March 2021 and October 2021.
“These public officers were specifically from Malawi Defence Force, Malawi Police Service, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, Malawi Revenue Authority, Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority, Office of the President and Cabinet, Office of the Vice-President, Judiciary, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Information, Ministry of Homeland Security, Ministry of Lands, Ministry of Tourism, State House, Reserve Bank of Malawi, Financial Intelligence Authority, and even the Anti-Corruption Bureau itself. Additionally, the Bureau has found that another set of 31 individuals from the private sector, the media, civil society, and the legal fraternity also received money from Mr Sattar during those eight months, bringing the total of those on the Bureau’s list to 84,” Chakwera said in a national address on 21 June 2022.
To this day, it is not known whether or not, all the 84 officers have been investigated, questioned or prosecuted. There are many challenges for the ACB and its partner agencies and they range from human capacity to financing; and from legal reforms to political will.
That is why there was so much hope when Vice President Saulos Chilima and the taskforce on Public Sector Review Systems presented their report to President Chakwera on 21 May 2021. The taskforce was meant to review the three government systems of ‘Allowances, Procurement and Contracts’. It would then submit to the president recommendations of changes to the Conditions of Service and Structure of the Public Service to make it more efficient. Three years down the line, the contents of the report remain kept under wraps. Thus, the systems in MDAs remain archaic and chaotic.
In 2020, President Chakwera, concerned with corruption levels and the lack of accountability and abuse of public funds for the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, delegated Chilima to lead a taskforce that would look into the government system and recommend reforms. In a statement, the president said, “If we are going to root out the problem of waste, abuse, and theft of public resources, we must admit that these are behaviours that have poisoned our values as a nation and have corroded our entire government system.”
President Chakwera acknowledged that bad or old laws, procedures, policies, and contracts that are cleverly designed to not only facilitate waste, abuse, and theft, but to also protect those who engage in the acts from being fired or prosecuted. But these observations need action. Three years down the line, the Chakwera administration must begin to bite those who plunder public resources. It must zero in on legal reforms and make sure that the laws on corruption and theft of public resources are water-tight.
No follow-ups, no questions
Funds were abused during the Covid-19 pandemic. There was a list of officers in councils across the country who abused these funds. Some were told to refund the money; others simply chose to ‘eat’ the money and lie low. No one is willing to follow up on that money. Huge sums of money from multilateral and bilateral donors that came in the name of containment of the Covid-19 pandemic must be accounted for. Malawians need an audit report that should be made public. The long arm of the law must take its course on officers who mismanaged the funds. Again, this is another case of laissez faire which is hurting Malawi.
The same applies to the Cashgate Scandal – that systematic looting of public money. While some people were investigated, arrested and prosecuted, others are said to be still walking scot free. Or do we know if all the suspects were investigated, arrested and prosecuted? Do we have any legislation that allows the ACB or any prosecuting agency in Malawi to make public all cases that have been concluded or are in progress – in a particular issue of public interest such as the Cashgate? Malawians deserve to know. Despite the operationalization of the Access to Information Law, it is still very difficult to get pieces of information from MDAs. There is need for radical change as to how one can access information from public offices.
There is a culture of hiding information – and the cardinal point is: ‘ask no questions and you will be told no lies.’ Yet, these are public offices funded by our taxes. Section 37 of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi says: “Subject to any Act of Parliament, every person shall have the right of access to all information held by the State or any of its organs at any level of Government in so far as such information is required for the exercise of his rights.”
Therefore, Malawians must demand that information officers be employed in all MDAs to divulge information “in so far as such information is required for the exercise of their rights.” With that in place, it will be easy for Malawians to know how government is faring on the war against corruption; how government is dealing with the (Affordable Input Programme) fertilizer issue and its complexities; how government is handling the food shortage that puts at risk at least 4.4 million Malawians; how government is dealing with those mentioned in the corruption scandal where 84 people have been listed by the ACB; how Covid-19 funds were disbursed and the issues that followed etc.
That said, Malawians are challenged to ask questions. They should not be afraid to ask their representatives pertinent and probing questions. It is not a crime to ask a District Commissioner, a Councillor or a Member of Parliament how they spent Covid-19 funds at district level. Neither is it a crime to ask all arm of government to explain how, until today, nobody is willing to give information on Covid-19 expenditures. Can we deal with this laissez faire attitude to everything once and for all? It is already costing us a lot; and it is the root of all evil.
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