By Kondanani Chilimunthaka
President Lazarus Chakwera on Tuesday afternoon assured the nation that his administration is very committed to fight corruption to the end in the country by strengthening all institutions in the chain of the fight.
He was speaking at Parliament Buildings in the Capital Lilongwe on 28th February, 2023 when he appeared before the August House to respond to general issues raised by Members of the house during general debate on the State Of the Nation Address (SONA) which he delivered in the House on Friday, 17th February, 2023 and also to provide answers to specific questions that were put forward by five specific Members of the House.
Responding to a question from Zomba Lisanjala MP William Susuwere Banda, who asked as to What plans the government has to ensure that the fight against corruption in Malawi is not lost, considering that currently Malawi has performed badly in the fight against corruption and that the Director General of Anti-Corruption Bureau spent most of her time fighting internal battles than doing what she was employed for; President Chakwera told the House that his government remains firmly committed to the fight against corruption in Malawi based on actions already taken and those that will continue to be taken in the war against the vice.
Among others, President Chakwera told the August House that government has strengthened prevention of corruption, prosecution capacity, and has established the Financial Crime Court.
“We are strengthening prevention of corruption. This is being done by strengthening the capacity of the institutions in the chain of prevention of corruption. The Anti-Corruption Bureau is only, but one institution in that chain. But our approach is strengthening all institutions in that chain like PPDA, Government Contract Unit, Auditor General’s Office, Accountant General’s Office, Financial Intelligence Authority, Malawi Police Service, and Financial Crime Court.” Said President Chakwera.
He added that his administration has come up with strategies for prevention of the vice including: instituting Integrity Committees conducting life style audit, for which the President said the Anti-Corruption Bureau has already developed the manual guide, and instituting whistle blower Protection Act.
Here the President told the House that consultation with stakeholders have already taken place with the support from the country’s cooperating partners such as European Union and United Nations, and that the process is with the Malawi Law Commission.
Further, the President told the nation that his administration is reviewing the Primary School Curriculum to include ethics on corruption subjects in the Curriculum.
Malawi leader also told the August House that the Anti-Corruption Bureau recently advertised to recruit lawyers to boost the capacity at ACB as one way of strengthening the prosecution capacity.
Said Chakwera; “The Anti-Corruption Bureau itself right now has 16 lawyers of its own who can prosecute cases and after duly conducting procurement process recently, the ACB identified three more lawyers from the practice to help with the prosecution and now is in the process of drawing up contracts for them which will be performance based. Also at the office of Director General for Anti-Corruption Bureau, we are in the process of strengthening capacity by bringing in one or two very experienced prosecutors to not only prosecute specific cases of corruption and fraud but also transfer skills to the younger lawyers.”
He then told the House that his administration has also established the Financial Crime Court, saying the court is to improve the fight against corruption.
“This court is now established and it was an initiative of this government to improve the fight against corruption. Three judges have initially been appointed, the court is now operational.
I will therefore say that in view of those measures, we must avoid the sensational idea that Malawi is doing nothing to curb corruption or that we are losing that fight. You can not measure the progress of the fight against corruption by headline and social media allegations. The measure of the fight against corruption is whether institutions are being given what they need to win that fight and whether they are producing results in the form of stopping fraud from happening, recovering what was stolen in the past and prosecuting those responsible until they are convicted, and in these critical areas, we are making much progress.”
President Chakwera then responded to a follow-up question from Zomba Lisanjala, and other two supplementary questions on the Corruption issues from Machinga East legislator (Esther Jolobala) and Dedza North (Saviel Kafwafwa) respectively.
Since he was elected, President Chakwera has been appearing before Parliament to fulfill the constitutional mandate based on Parliamentary Standing order 70(B) as laid with Section 89(3) part C of the Constitution on Malawi.
