Transparency, Accountability and Responsibility-Malawians Being Duped!

Transparency, accountability and responsibility are three fundamental cornerstones of good corporate governance for any public organisation. Talk to any accountant and they will assert that a good board of directors and top management team needs to safeguard transparency in their organisation’s dealings while concurrently ensuring accountability and responsibility for all transactions.

Yet an assessment of the current regime in Malawi in this limelight points to glaring shortfalls in as far as good "corporate governance" is concerned.

Lack of these three cornerstones of governance, be it in a business organisation or a government, breeds the dreaded and despicable disease of fraud and corruption. President Bingu Mutharika’s government prides itself of corrupt-free practices, yet it is so obvious that the reality on the ground is far from the empty rhetoric.

Since taking power in 2004, President Mutharika has continued with the privatisation of public companies, a process that started soon after market liberalisation in the early 1990s.

Furthermore, in the normal course of business, the government has been awarding various contracts, tenders and concessions to private companies, both local and foreign, to provide the much need public infrastructure such as roads.

It is in this process of awarding and signing of these transactions, entering into covenants with private companies, that raises a lot of questions in as far as transparency, accountability and responsibility is concerned.

Has the government been transparent enough through provision of information to all interested parties on each deal? Has the government properly accounted for all the resources involved in a transaction in order to secure best deals for Malawians? Have the government been honest enough to uphold its responsibility of entering into covenants on behalf of the Malawian people; the majority of who languish is dire poverty?

These are the basic questions that require answers from those that sat on the round tables as they sold our meagre resources away.

There have been numerous reports in the local tabloids of shady deals being signed by the government and various companies.

For instance, there is that famous deal where the government secured only 15% of the returns in an investment as the foreign investor went laughing to the bank with 85%!

Then there is that other deal where a certain company was overvalued by at least 200% so that it could only be bought by cronies of the powers that be, folks who are now similar to the Russian oligarchs due to the obscene wealth they have amassed within the last four years!

Moreover, don’t forget the lady minister who fraudulently signed away one of our best marshes in the north to some Middle Eastern company in return for a pittance!

How about that foreign company involved in constructing our roads—is the process through which this company transparent enough secures these contracts?

One could go on and on questioning the modus operandi of awarding each contract and privatisation of companies at present in the so-called corrupt free Malawi.

The answers and conclusions always point to the same—Malawians are being duped or hoodwinked!

There is no transparency, accountability and responsibility in government; hence, corruption is prevalent, contrary to what we are made to believe! I hope by the time that we wake up, we will not be in the situation of Russia where few individuals own 75% of the resources in the country!