Minister calls Land Ministry officials to desist from corruption

Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Paul Chibingu has called on the ministry officials to desist from fraud and corruption when dealing with issues of land and housing.

He told the officers in Lilongwe during a meeting on Fraud and Corruption Prevention that corruption poses a threat to government’s efforts to provide equitable distribution of land and housing to the general public.

“Corruption in land has a devastating consequences to the country. It results in among other things loss of revenue by government through dubious sale of land since both the seller and the purchaser do not pay appropriate taxes to government,” he said.

In addition, he said, it leads to poor infrastructure development as those who corruptly access land have no capacity to put up proper structures in the long run making Malawi a less attractive nation to foreign investment destination.

He therefore encouraged the team to ensure transparency and accountability when allocating plots and houses, award construction projects and other activities in the ministry.

Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director of Investigations, Daniel Mponda hailed the ministry for coming up with measures to fight corruption at work place.

“This is the first ministry to develop a policy that provides a framework for addressing issues of fraud and corruption,” he said.

He said the policy is in line with the National Anti-Corruption Strategy aimed at providing holistic approach to the fight against corruption in the country.

The strategy among others requires every ministry to allocate at least one per cent towards the fight against corruption.