Malawi President hits back at Transparency International

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has trashed global corruption watchdog, Transparency International (TI), perception on Malawi differing with British High Commission to Malawi, Richard Wildash who backed the organisation.

Wildash backed TI’s latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) that Malawi had dropped 28 places from 90 in 2004 to 118 this year, a three-year time-frame discrediting Mutharika’s much-touted zero-tolerance to corruption.

The British High Commissioner described TI as a “credible” global corruption watchdog and he attached weight to its ranking.

But speaking on arrival at KamuzuInternationalAirport in Lilongwe from Portugal, President Mutharika said the rating by TI were wrong and went on to challenge the head of the organisation to visit the country.

"My government is challenging the TI president to come and discuss the issue with us. Otherwise Malawi will not take up their findings seriously," anger-filled Mutharika said.

The British envoy accepted the ratings as objective: “TI look at a range of indicators in order to calculate their ratings. It is a respected international NGO and we ought to take its views seriously.

“TI has this year covered more countries than previously and some of these have improved in their rating, resulting in Malawi having a lower ranking but Malawi’s rate as such has remained static,” Wildash told The Nation tabloid.

The President claimed his zero-tolerance on graft was on course disclosing that under his administration, government had successfully prosecuted 12 cases out of over 900 cases in the last two years.

Mutharika retaliated that he will continue his crusade against corruption.

"My government would continue to investigate high profile cases and make sure that they are brought to book," said the President.

People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) president Aleke Banda is on record saying that Malawi’s corruption ranking is disappointing and that government is paying lip service to the fight against corruption.

"It is very disappointing that we are not making any improvements in our corruption index, which means that our efforts are not having any impact. The problem is that there is more talk than action in combating corruption and as a country this is very sad.

"Corruption is rampant in public institutions, government departments and parastatals. Obviously, it also exists in the private sector, but it is worse in the public sector because people who are caught with corrupt practices in the private sector are dealt with more quickly than in the public sector," Banda said.

United Democratic Front (UDF) secretary general, Kennedy Makwangwala said: "The perception of Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) today is that of an organisation that is used by the incumbent leadership to fight and silence those in the opposition whilst those in the Executive are busy amassing as much wealth because for them the ACB works just on historical information."

The British envoy also said it became evident that those interviewed perceive that Malawi needs to do more to address corruption.