By Cathy Maulidi:
The Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs has described the fight against corruption in government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as a mixed bag.
Chairperson for the committee Albert Mbawala said this after meeting members of public institutions’ integrity committees (IIC), including those from Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST), Southern Region Water Board and Blantyre Water Board in the first quarter of January 2024.
“Most ministries, departments and agencies have policies on the fight against corruption but there is nothing they are doing on fighting corruption in the procurement sector. The procurement sector is [mentioned] nowhere in their policies.
“So, this is a big concern to us as a committee because most corruption happens in the procurement sector. Billions of Kwacha are being lost through procurement processes and it is worrisome that the issue is not being looked into in most institutions’ corruption policies,” Mbawala said.
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One of the Institutions, namely CMST, said— through its director of procurement and chairperson for the trust’s integrity committee Charles Khombeni— that despite having some gaps as stated by the committee, their institution is doing well in the fight against corruption.
“We have made a lot of strides in the fight against corruption,” he said.
