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Malawi recognised for construction sector strides

 

An international governance institute, Open Government Partnership (OGP), has  recognised Malawi for the strides it has made through Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST).

This is the first time an African country has received the recognition for championing accountability in the construction sector, according to the recipient of the award Malawi Economic Justice and Network (Mejn) executive director Director Dalitso Kubalasa.

Speaking in an interview last week after returning from Paris, France, where he received the award at the OGP Global Summit, Kubalasa said his message at the forum was that if cost overruns and time overruns can be removed, the construction sector can be transformed.

Kubalasa (L) poses chief director for good governance in OPC Wezi Kaira (C) and CoST Malawi coordinator Lyford Gideon

He said: “It was something we never envisaged. As Mejn, we are a member of CoST in Malawi whose champion is Vice-President Saulos Chilima. We made a submission to Open Governance Partnership on how we can transform this sector in Malawi and out of the submissions, ours was deemed good enough to be recognised.”

He said cutting away corruption and fraud can help transform the construction sector and there is need to look at challenges as opportunities because construction is the pinnacle of development and directly impacts on people’s lives.

In his speech at the summit, France President Francois Hollande said OGP is bringing commitments to transparency and that there was need to take the commitments further into reality.

In a statement from OGP, he was quoted having said: “There is a feeling that democracy may not be the best for service delivery with citizens seen to be getting tired of not getting the results.”

“But there is message of hope from citizens and  State relationship for a new form of democracy.”

President Peter Mutharika appointed Chilima as the country’s CoST champion early this year to crack the whip on fraud and corruption in the construction sector. n

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