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| National |
| Corruption, weak leadership worry DFID |
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by
McDonald Chapalapata, 09 June 2003
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17:22:48
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Levels of corruption and poor accountability in the country may deteriorate further between now and the general elections next year, the British Department of International Development (DFID) said on Monday.
Launching the Country Assistance Plan (CAP) for Malawi in which DFID will provide K22 billion to Malawi for the next three years, head of DFID Malawi Mike Wood said his office consulted widely for almost year with government officials, the civil society and parliamentary committees.
“There is a risk that government may divert development resources for purely political purposes,” reads the CAP document released on Monday.
DFID also says among other risks that may hamper the implementation of the Malawi’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) include corruption, lack of leadership on HIV/Aids, weak voice and accountability and macroeconomic instability.
“Unless government tackles corruption more aggressively, donors may conclude that scarce resources should be channelled elsewhere. The people of Malawi will also lose faith in government’s anticorruption pronouncements,” says DFID in the document.
DFID also says there is a medium probability that macroeconomic instability will persist and said they would encourage improved productivity of public expenditure and reduced wastage to ensure sustainable fiscal deficits.
DFID also says the PRSP does not clearly specify the pro-poor programmes that will be protected should shocks require adjustments to the budget and noted that this, together with capacity constraints and weaknesses in public expenditure management, pose a major risk.
DFID also says that PRSP and longer-term millennium development goals for Malawi will not be met unless there is a sustained effort on the part of government and donors to deal with the Aids crisis.
“A key risk is lack of leadership and capacity to implement a genuinely multi-sectoral HIV/Aids strategy which comprehensively addresses prevention, care and mitigation in the health and non-health sectors,” says DFID.
Minister of Finance Friday Jumbe defended government, saying there is strong political commitment in addressing poverty as evidenced by the launch of PRSP by President Bakili Muluzi in April 2002.
He also said government is serious in addressing issues of corruption by the creation of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
“Corruption is evil and we, as government, need to put in transparent and accountability systems and strengthen capacity of the ACB,” said Jumbe.
He denied that there is lack of leadership in the fight against HIV/Aids saying the matter is in the office of the president and the appointment of a full minister responsible for HIV/Aids is testimony enough that government is taking the fight against the scourge seriously.
Wood announced during the launch of CAP that DFID has approved the provision of 500,000 pounds to the National Aids Commission (NAC) and will continue to support it in the fight against HIV/Aids.
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