Malawi ranking remain unchanged in corruption ratings –World Bank

Anti graft chief, Nampota: Accused of graft among many Malawi government officials being shilded by President Mutharika

Malawi position on world league table of corruption remains unchanged despite a much touted “zero tolerance” approach on corruption by President Ngwazi Dr Bingu wa Mutharika. 

In a latest World Bank ranking, Malawi has not improved on its fight against corruption and remained on position 32 in Africa.

The World Bank said in a statement that of the 47 Sub-Saharan countries ranked in the 2008 survey, 64 per cent score less than three out of 10, a level that, according to Transparency International, indicates rampant corruption.  

Mavuto Bamusi, national coordinator of the Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC), a grouping of local human rights organisations is on record attributing Malawi's poor ranking in the fight against corruption to poverty: more than 70 percent of the about 12 million population lives on less than US$2 a day.

"The gap between the rich and the poor, measured by Gini coefficient, is still yawning. Remuneration for civil servants is still pitifully disproportionate to the cost of living, and public-sector reforms like privatisation are leading to retrenchment and other forms of marginalisation," he noted. 

The Gini coefficient varies between 0 and 1 - the closer to 1, the more unequal a society; the closer to 0, the more equal a society. 
 
Malawi's is particularly high at 0.62, meaning that the country suffers from one of the world's worst income disparities.

"These factors, coupled with a tax regime that is more responsive to the private sector (producers) and burdensome to the majority poor (consumers), tills a fertile ground for breeding and incubating corruption and more corruption," Bamusi said.

Charles Kumbatira, executive director of Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN), a coalition of civil society organisations concerned with economic governance, said government had started numerous corruption cases but had not concluded them.

“Government has set the political tone to deal with corruption, but it is failing to match it with action. The ACB itself has not come out clearly on what cases it has dealt with," he commented.

Political will was a "crucial matter", Kumbatira said, and both government and the opposition should cooperate to end "this kind of ridicule of Malawi being perceived as one of the most corrupt countries, while in actual sense the country is better off."

The opposition has blamed Mutharika government for using anti graft body as a tool of persecuting political competitors other than fighting corruption, an accusation denied by government. 

But recent reports indicated that government officials named in corrupt practises including ministers, close aides of President Mutharika and even the anti-graft chief himself, Alex Nampota were being shielded from facing justice in various corruption scams (http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/1596.html). 

In the World Bank report, only one other African country, Madagascar, has improved its standing and then only by three places. 

The main losers in terms of rankings are Sudan (down 67 places), The Gambia (66 places) and Zimbabwe (60), followed by Congo (Brazzaville) and Sierra Leone , both down 45 places, Ethiopia (down 34), Côte d Ivoire (33) and Malawi (32).
Southern African states such as Botswana, Mauritius , South Africa and Namibia top the table.

While resource-rich nations, especially oil exporters (Sudan , Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo , Angola , Congo and Nigeria) cluster around the bottom.

“What this means is that, in recent years especially, economic growth has not been correlated with low levels of corruption,’’ the report said.   

The bank said the biggest gain by far was registered by Nigeria, whose score had risen by 93 per cent, albeit from a very low base.

Nigeria moved up 11 places in the world league table to 121 from 132.

World Bank particularly commended China ‘s significant aid and investment in African countries including Nigeria .

The World Bank said that China had concentrated its aid in Angola , Democratic Republic of Congo , Equatorial Guinea and Sudan where corruption had been high.

“This means that it is no longer possible to argue that corruption deters foreign direct investment,” it said.--(Additional reporting The Punch and Irin)