Implementation of Civic Participation in Public Procurement for Better Public Resource Allocation (CPPP-BPRA) project by Council for non-Governmental Organisations in Malawi – CONGOMA, with financial support from Tilitonse Foundation has unearthed chronic and deep-rooted political capture of community projects funded under Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

This follows findings obtained from CPPP-BPRA project conducted in three districts namely Balaka, Lilongwe and Rumphi. The project which is phased out end February 2020 commenced in February 2019 with a major purpose of preparing Civil Society for effective occupation of public procurement spaces for civic empowerment which will enhance transparency and accountability in public procurement (and disposal of assets) processes by February 2020.

The project was selected taking into consideration that the National budget allocations are predominantly Public Procurement where over 70 percent resources are spent on buying goods, services and works. As such, failure to monitor public procurement will result in having huge resources continuing going down the drain.

The second important point to note is that there is increasing poverty (Oxfam 2015) and increasing inequality among Malawians especially in rural areas due to inadequate public services resulting from corruption, embezzlement and wastage of public resources meant to provide public services.

Appreciating the importance of procurement function being very central to deliver goods and public services to the people, CPPP-BPRA project was carried out to ensure proper management of public procurement so that resources are well utilized and achieve its intended purposes.

According to the findings for both phase one and phase two; a lot of issues were excavated   where Political Interference came out strongly as a major drawback affecting public procurement operations at District Councils. The findings portrayed that Elements of interference included imposition of contractors, handling project documentation and funds, and high visibility of politicians in deciding the nature of the projects usually on the basis of campaign promises.

Acknowledging intrusion of politicians in Council’s operations, Member of Parliament for Rumphi West Yona Adadawiza Mkandawire admitted that CDF funds are misappropriated yet the basket keeps on increasing every year.

“CONGOMA should help in lobbying with Central Government to change some guidelines which endanger public procurement processes especially CDF guidelines so that duty bearers are accountable. The MPs take advantage on the loopholes to spend unnecessarily”, shouted Mkandawire.

Mkandawire’s views were also shared by concerned stakeholders during interface meetings at both District and National levels where a resolution was made to have CDF guidelines revised and clearly separate powers of an MP as lawmakers (budget appropriation) from implementing procurement activities in Councils.

On a positive note, some corrective measures have already started on CDF i.e. some District Councils have already started making initiatives to alleviate the problem of Political Interference at district level. According to Public Works Director for Rumphi Allan Chitete, Council has started embracing community procurement where procurement forms are being given to Area Development Committees -ADCs so that public procurement should be done and concluded at Community level and also as a way of limiting some funds from being controlled by MPs.

All these untold experiences were shared during the public monitoring events of the project and moving forward different stakeholders expressed satisfaction to have the project continued so that duty bearers should be held accountable all the time and have operations of public procurement in Councils to continue being transparent.

According to Chairperson for Lilongwe CSO Network Dan Malango, the CPPP-BPRA project needs to be sustained as public procurement operations in Councils are being transparent since the commencement of the project and concerned stakeholders have learnt a lot in ensuing that duty bearers are accountable in handling public procurement issues.

Echoing same sentiments, Director of Planning and Development in Balaka Obed Mwalughali appreciated the project and emphasized the need to sustain the project.

“Issues being raised by community members show that there are problems in procurement and there is a very big gap in terms of knowledge in the communities. All these have come out because of this project and we need to sustain so that community members we serve should not be left out with information on public procurement in Councils”, cited Mwalughali.

Concurring with this, Executive Director for CONGOMA Mr. Ronald Mtonga highlighted that sustainability prospects for CPPP-BPRA project are very high because people on the ground, CSOs, and Council were highly involved in all stages.

“We have already talked to them on the actions they are supposed to do moving forward, so they already know what to do as such sustainability is guaranteed from what we have done so far and moving forward”, explained Mtonga.

Adding further, Mr. Mtonga said that ordinary citizenry can participate in public procurement through joint efforts in monitoring of public services and benefits that community members get from public projects.

“We want the general public to participate in monitoring public procurement by giving an analysis on how they are satisfied with projects being implemented by the Councils. For example, when there is construction of road projects, how do people feel, is it user friendly, if the council has constructed the market, how will it benefit the citizenry, is it going to give them income on their daily basis? Such questions help the general public demand better services from duty bearers”, clarified Mtonga.

In appreciation of the project Deputy Director of Adminstration in the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development Dr. Victor Chinyamasandikonda said that implementation of the project in the Councils will help in reducing audit queries since most transactions will be transparent and duty bearers will be accountable.

“Issues coming out from this project are very important because most Councils are in problems in areas of procurement as most of them do not follow right procedures, but with the coming of the project it has assisted to iron out issues faced in Councils. It is our sincerely hope that the project will help to reduce audit queries which we used to answer from Parliament as the Councils will adopt good practices in procurement,” elaborated Chinyamasandikonda.

Moving forward for Councils to continue being accountable, Dr. Chinyamasandikonda said this; “the model that has been set by this  project need to be replicated in all 28 Districts of the country, and we will make sure as Government to work with all  Stakeholders so that the activities of procurement should be transparent as per what the law requires”, Pointed out Chinyamasandikonda.

Among others, main findings of the project are being highlighted by CONGOMA’s Executive Director, Mr. Ronald Mtonga as follows; “so far, we have seen how well the Councils comply with disclosure of information, at first we were  at 30 percent and now it’s coming to 60 – 70 percent of disclosure of public information. Secondly, interference of politicians in the conduct and managing of Constituency Development Fund in which  politicians sometimes impose contractors on the Council or they handle money or project documents on the same, but we are saying no, we need to separate powers of the MPs and the Council, and at the same time we should reduce conflict of interest. Apart from that, we have also discovered that when Council procures services, most local suppliers to do not qualify because they are not registered with Malawi Revenue Authority- MRA, Public Procurement and Disposal of Asset-s PPDA, or Registrar General, and we are saying, can we have a one stop center at District Council where these business people can get registered and get papers  and compete for the same services”, summarized Mtonga.