By Wezzie Gausi
The 2023 Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International shows that Malawi’s performance has remained constant on corruption scores.
The report shows that Malawi has scored 34 out of 100 points and has been ranked 115 out of 180 countries that have been assessed.
In 2022, Malawi scored 34 out of 100 points and was ranked 110 out of 180 countries and territories that were assessed.
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The 2023 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) shows that corruption is still thriving across the world.
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The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories around the globe by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, scoring them on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
“Over two-thirds of countries score below 50 out of 100, which strongly indicates that they have serious corruption problems. The global average is stuck at only 43 while the vast majority of countries have made no progress or declined in the last decade. What is more? 23 countries fell to their lowest scores to date this year,” the report reads.
Responding to the issue, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director General Martha Chizuma said, “obviously”, it’s not a good score.
She said scoring 34 again this year means Malawi is stuck at a not-so-admirable score.
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“Having improved to 35 in 2021, we should have been moving to 40 by now. But this should just embolden all of us, Malawians, to do more; to push ourselves further— as fighting corruption is our own assurance of survival and/or dignified life. There is [a] need to ensure that sanctions on corruption are seen to be tough if we are to improve on the score,” Chizuma said.
Meanwhile, Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency Executive Director Willy Kambwandira has said he is not surprised with findings of the report.
He said the report has presented the reality on the ground.
“Government has paid lip service on the fight against corruption and there are organised efforts and schemes to deal with anti-corruption agencies including CSOs [civil society organisations that are] critical of the government. Corruption has found fertile ground and there is no genuine commitment and political will to deal with the vice,” Kambwandira said.
Human Rights Defenders Coalition Chairperson Gift Trapence said the problem is that stakeholders have been fighting symptoms instead of being radical in the fight against corruption.
He said to fight corruption, the country needs systematic reforms that can look into all aspects involved in preventing corruption in the public sector, especially during procurement processes.
“In all democratic governments Malawi has had, there hasn’t been real political commitment at all levels to implement a holistic and radical reform agenda.
“We need to fix the systems that have not been working for a long time. Fixing the systems means making hard choices and real political commitment from the leadership beyond measure,” Trapence said.
This year’s CPI shows mixed results in Africa, with significant improvements in a few countries.
However, according to the report, most African countries experienced stagnation, maintaining the region’s consistently poor performance, with an unaltered regional average score of 33 out of 100.
According to the report, the global trend on corruption has revealed that the weakening of justice systems is reducing accountability for public officials, saying this allows corruption to thrive.
“Both authoritarian and democratic leaders are undermining justice. This is increasing impunity for corruption, and even encouraging it by eliminating consequences for criminals.
“Corrupt acts like bribery and abuse of power are also infiltrating many courts and other justice institutions across the globe. Where corruption is the norm, vulnerable people have restricted access to justice while the rich and powerful capture whole justice systems, at the expense of the common good,” the report reads.
In 2021, Malawi scored 35 and was ranked 110.
In 2020, Malawi scored 30 and was ranked 129 while in 2019, it scored 31 and was ranked 123.
