The dawn of a democratic dispensation and
the first multiparty government paved way to the
decentralizing of some of the core central government
functions. The decentralization process was aimed at
empowering the local people to get involved in the decision
making in the local government. In the same vein the exercise
empowered the District Assemblies to devise and execute
development projects suitable for their areas. On the part of
the local people they were empowered to choose their own
leaders- power to the people. The prevailing view among the
local people and most governance commentators now is that the
decentralized local governance in Malawi has not succeeded in
enhancing transparency and accountability of the assemblies
to the people they serve, instead, it has exacerbated
corruption acts among the local assemblies in relation to
their election and awarding of contracts/grants. Part of the
reason for this grotesque trend is that the local people have
not been active participants in the decentralization process
as was initially anticipated.
Furthermore, decentralization is widely accused of creating
hundreds of new public authorities, each having powers to
tax, spend and regulate, that are prone to abuse in
environments where governance is weak. As a consequence of
the weak governance it is not surprising therefore that the
local people are generally reluctant to pay market and
business fees for services that would typically be provided
by government as they do not have trust in the system. Given
the non-transparent culture within the assemblies lower
revenues end up being collected, partially due to people
defaulting on the fees that are due,. This results in less
funds available for the Assembly to spend on crucial
socio-economic programmes to benefit the people they serve.
It is therefore a fact that cannot be contended that in
Malawi the corruption acts have led to massive financial mess
in local assemblies, loss of citizen and donor trust and also
low-quality infrastructures due to poor workmanship thereby
undermining the very essence of democracy and good governance
that were envisaged in the creation of local assemblies
through the Local Government Act 1998 and the Malawian
constitution. In general terms corruption is a vice that
harms every area of human life and is a human right abuse
since services may not be accessible on an equitable basis to
the local people.
While we contend that the decentralization has ushered in
corruption acts within the local government, we also believe
that decentralization can also be a remedy to corruption acts
within the assemblies, but only if the local people are
proactive and able to demand accountability and transparency
from public authorities. A study by the World Bank on the
Philippines in the 1990s clearly shows that decentralization
may multiply rather than limit opportunities for corruption
if it is implemented under unfavourable environments. Lack of
local people’s participation in the local governance may be
Malawi’s great undoing in ensuring that decentralization
limits levels of corruption and fraud within the assemblies.
It is against this backdrop therefore that this project has
been conceived with a view of encouraging the culture of
transparency and accountability on the part of the
assemblies, enlightening the local people about their
collective and individual responsibility to fight corruption
and demand accountability and transparency from their
Assembly, and actually beginning to reduce specific forms of
corruption.
The project is being implemented in Mchinji district with
support from the Australian Agency for International
Development (AusAID) to the tune of AUD 28, 500.
The project has a bi-weekly radio program called Kaunini wa
Chitukuko (Development Watch) aired on Mudziwathu Community
Radio.
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