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Malawi Pilot Project Highlights Critical Lessons for Promoting Transparency and Accountability in Public Infrastructure

More information about this project can be found on the project page. 

September 20, 2024 – The completion of a pilot project in Malawi provided deep insights into shortcomings in public infrastructure contracting, paths to meaningful transparency and accountability improvements, and the vital roles that civil society organizations can and should play.

(For a detailed discussion of this project please visit – Good Governance Academy)

Purpose

In November 2020, the Partnership for Transparency (PTF), in partnership with the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship/Integrity Platform (AICC/IP), the National Construction Industry Council/CoST- Infrastructure Transparency Initiative Malawi (NCIC/CoST Malawi) in association with the CoST International Secretariat (CoST IS) based in the United Kingdom, embarked on a three-year project to enhance the capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) and journalists to engage in informed and responsible monitoring of public procurement infrastructure projects. With a three-month extension, the project was concluded on January 31, 2024.

The project aimed to enhance the transparency, fairness, and effectiveness of the public procurement process for infrastructure in Malawi through training and empowering civil society actors and investigative journalists to understand and monitor public procurement transactions. In addition, a project objective included the modernization of the Information Platform for Public Infrastructure (IPPI).

Donal O’Leary, Project manager and PTF Advisor, noted: “The overriding lessons from project are that with some notable exceptions, Implementation of infrastructure projects in Malawi currently does not provide value for money and is deficient in accountability. Our project demonstrated that CSOs can help promote Transparency, Accountability and Anti-Corruption in Malawi’s infrastructure sector.”

Mr. O’Leary added: “ This pilot project underscored how, with the appropriate government commitment, CSOs can play an increasing role in improving accountability in all aspects of public infrastructure procurement, and ensure through effective communications that there is heightened transparency enabling citizens to become far better informed. I believe that a more substantial project should be developed to build on all that has been achieved with this pilot project.”

Achievements

Some of the project achievements (outputs/outcomes) included:

• • The project enjoyed support at the highest level of Government in Malawi. President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera continues to act as the CoST Champion in Malawi for infrastructure reforms. The President’s Delivery Unit (PDU) engaged with the MSG in October 2023, and participated in several training sessions with Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) and Procuring and Disposal Entities (PDEs) to improve the project data input into the Integrated Platform for Infrastructure Projects (IPPI) to track project performance. This resulted in a significant increase in the number of projects capable of monitoring to a new total of 572 from less than 200 the year before.
  • The project modernized the IPPI, which is managed by CoST Malawi, to improve transparency and accountability in infrastructure projects for the government and citizens of Malawi. This digital platform enables the publication of information on public infrastructure projects and contracts from the tender stage through to the completion of the project. The IPPI addresses inefficiencies, corruption, and waste in infrastructure procurement, which accounts for 70% of Malawi’s national budget expenditure. The project aligned the IPPI with the Open Contracting for Infrastructure Data Standard (OC4IDS), a global standard for releasing data and documents throughout the public procurement process. This has enabled the publication of information on at least 592 projects. available to the public, totaling 4.4 trillion Kwacha on the platform by 36 enrolled PDEs. The project focused on uploading correct data by PDEs and making it available for public reference. In December 2022, Malawi was accredited a prefix and mentioned as an OC4IDS publisher by the CoST help desk, making Malawi the third African country to receive this accreditation.
  • The number of projects uploaded on the portal has significantly improved. Over the period November 1, 2022 through October 31, 2023 the total number of projects uploaded increased from 393 to 563 at the front end, and at the back end, the projects moved from 540 to 756. As of September 2023, one thousand five hundred active users were recorded to have visited the portal.
• • CSOs are equipped to monitor infrastructure project procurement: Capacity-building activities were implemented to achieve the project’s objective. Two main activities were undertaken: development and delivery of training manuals. Progress was measured by reviewing progress indicators. According to the MTR, two training manuals were developed and used to train CSOs and Media. The project conducted training on advocacy and public procurement. Following recommendations made in the MTR, CoST Malawi conducted three regional refresher training sessions targeting CSOs, media, and PDEs. Training consisted of 14 sessions and spanned over three days. The feedback questionnaires completed by trainees at completion of the training indicated great satisfaction with the training, and take-home manuals on procurement were provided to all trainees.
  • Starting in October 2022, a total of nine Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) were selected from among the CSOs that were previously trained to monitor public infrastructure project procurement at the national and district levels in Malawi using the Information Platform for Public Infrastructure (IPPI) and other sources of information to report on compliance with the formal disclosure requirements (FDR) regulations in public infrastructure procurement. Through cooperating with relevant duty bearers, CSOs promoted an evidence-based dialogue between duty bearers and CSOs to improve performance and budget expenditures in public infrastructure procurement.
• • CSO’s demonstrated their capacities to monitor public infrastructure procurement: Based on a competitive selection process, twelve CSOs were assigned public infrastructure projects to monitor over 12 months. After refresher training, and with each CSO having access to an assigned project engineer, they successfully identified and resolved various issues. Nine CSOs monitored infrastructure project procurement, while three monitored district budgetary expenditures. They submitted a total of 12 final monitoring reports and four quarterly reports each. CSOs demonstrated their capacity to monitor public infrastructure, as highlighted in two success stories, mentioned below,  that underscore the importance of linkages with media houses in enhancing transparency and accountability.
  • One example related to the revelation of poor structural integrity and lack of a qualified site manager during the construction of the Mzimba stadium. According to the CSO responsible for the monitoring, COIDA, after contacting the Department of Buildings (DoB) – the national agency responsible for the project – everything improved and they had seen great progress.
  • Another example related to the engagement of the CSO, GLOHOMO, with the DoB on the National Aquatic Complex in Lilongwe. In the second quarter of monitoring GLOHOMO reported that project data were not being updated on the IPPI portal. While the procurement department of the responsible agency – the Ministry of Youth – was not updating project information on the Portal, they had not been trained to do so. GLOHOMO contacted the DoB and convinced the project supervisor to take responsibility to upload the National Aquatic Complex data on the IPPI portal. The compliance level for this engagement improved from no data on the IPPI to 72% of the 36 field questions.