Strengthening the Capacity of CSOs to Promote Transparency and Accountability in Public Infrastructure Projects in Malawi

Photo courtesy of the State House Malawi – Office of the President

Overview

Over the last nine years, under the leadership of the local chapter of the CoST Infrastructure Transparency Initiative (CoST Malawi), many concrete steps have been taken to improve transparency, integrity, and accountability of the construction sector in Malawi. However, one of the challenges that still exists is that civil society organizations (CSOs) have not been able to fully participate in this initiative due to capacity constraints in procurement. In collaboration with the CoST Secretariat in London, CoST Malawi, African Institute for Corporate Citizenship (AICC), and Integrity Platform (IP), PTF is supporting Strengthening the Capacity of CSOs to Promote Transparency and Accountability in Public Infrastructure Projects in Malawi financed by the European Union.

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

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.

Project Summary

In the long run, substantial improvements in transparency and accountability in public infrastructure projects in Malawi require the active involvement of CSOs in monitoring public procurement in infrastructure projects, at the national and district levels and budget expenditures in public procurement at the district level, as well as engaging with government, including advocating for effective policies to promote transparency and accountability and addressing corruption risks in procurement. At present, CSOs lack the resources, skills, and experience to be credible monitors of procurement of infrastructure projects and credible advocates for transparency and accountability in infrastructure procurement. Under the action, the partners, including the African Institute for Corporate Citizenship (AICC), the Integrity Platform (IP), the National Construction Industry Council (NCIC), and CoST-Malawi, will design and deliver best-practice training programs to develop the institutional capacities of CSOs to effectively monitor infrastructure project procurement, as well as budgetary expenditures on infrastructure procurement at the district level. This training will focus on the use of the Information Platform for Public Infrastructure (IPPI), a digital procurement platform. This capacity development of CSOs will also provide an opportunity for some CSOs (selected under an open competitive process) of “learning by doing,” through which CSOs will refine their skills by monitoring public procurement of a set of infrastructure projects, as well as entering into dialogue with some district governments on budgetary expenditures on infrastructure procurement. In addition, under the leadership of AICC/IP, the project will support national-level dialog between CSOs and duty bearers relating to promoting transparency and accountability in infrastructure procurement and thereby establish AICC/IP and CSOs as legitimate stakeholders in Malawi on this issue.

Intended Impact

The project focuses on improving the capacity of civil society to monitor procurement in Malawi in a wide range of publicly financed infrastructure projects (particularly in the sectors of water supply and sanitation; transportation, including roads; and building) and thereby advocate for increased transparency and accountability in their identification, preparation, and implementation.

Results of this project will include:

Increased political commitment by national and local governments as well as project implementing agencies to integrity in public procurement;
Greater enforcement of laws and regulations that promote integrity in public procurement;
CSOs monitor procurement in selected publicly financed projects at the national and local levels, in several construction sectors; and
CSOs demand accountability in those aspects of delivery relating to systems performance.

Project Objectives

The project is designed to enhance the procurement monitoring capability of CSOs in Malawi and will focus on achieving the following specific objectives:

A sufficient number of CSOs will be trained to monitor public infrastructure procurement at the project level and analyze budget expenditures on public infrastructure procurement at the national and district levels in Malawi. This will include familiarizing trainees on using the Information Platform for Public Infrastructure (IPPI).
Through cooperation with relevant duty bearers, CSOs will demonstrate their capacities to monitor public infrastructure procurement and analyze budget expenditures in public infrastructure procurement.
The IPPI is fully operationalized to enable compliance with the FDR regulations in public infrastructure procurement.
Evidence-based dialogue is promoted between duty bearers and CSOs in order to improve performance in public infrastructure procurement.

Project Activities

The project consists of four activities:

(a) Building capacity of CSOs to advocate for increased transparency, accountability, and integrity and monitor procurement at the national and local levels in Malawi in the water supply and sanitation, transport, and building sectors;

(b) Facilitating CSO involvement in public infrastructure procurement monitoring and advocacy programs by applying the skills they have acquired in capacity building activities;

Project Team

Donal O'Leary

Project Manager

Wayne Wittig

Adviser, PTF

Andrew Wells

Finance and Administration Officer, PTF

Joe Chingani

Board Chair, CoST Malawi Multi-Stakeholder Group

Lyford Gideon

Country Manager, CoST Malawi

Faith Chimwaza

Programmes Officer, CoST Malawi

Olive Kabatwairwe

Regional Manager, CoST Africa

Jeff Kabondo

Coordinator – Governance Programs, ACIC

Henry Mlinde

Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, ACIC

About Our Partner

CoST – the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative (CoST) is one of the leading global initiatives improving transparency and accountability in public infrastructure. CoST works with government, private sector and civil society to promote the disclosure, validation and interpretation of data from infrastructure projects. This helps to inform and empower citizens and enables them to hold decision-makers to account. Our experience indicates that Informed citizens and responsive public institutions help drive reforms that reduce mismanagement, inefficiency, corruption and the risks posed to the public from poor quality infrastructure. Malawi joined CoST during the pilot stage in 2008, after the Government of Malawi expressed interest in the principles of the initiative through the Office of the Director of Public Procurement. The CoST approach is focussed on four core features: disclosure, assurance, multi-stakeholder working and social accountability. These features provide a global standard for CoST implementation in enhancing infrastructure transparency and accountability. The disclosure process ensures that information about the purpose, scope, costs and execution of infrastructure projects is open and accessible to the public, and that it is disclosed in a timely manner. Before Malawi joined CoST, infrastructure data was disclosed only at the contract award stage of the project cycle. Since joining CoST, this has developed to cover the entire project cycle.

Additional Information

Malawi is the Third African Country to have an Accredited Infrastructure Monitoring Platform

The Information Platform for Public Infrastructure in Malawi (IPPI) has been officially accredited as an Infrastructure Data Standard publisher by the Open Contracting Partnership by Open Contracting for Infrastructure Data Standards (OC4IDS). As a result, Malawi is now the third African country, following Ghana and Uganda, to have an authorized infrastructure monitoring tool. The IPPI was developed, with the support of UNIK Multimedia Technologies (UNIK), as part of the “Strengthening the Capacity of CSOs to Promote Transparency and Accountability in Public Infrastructure Projects in Malawi” project. The project is being managed by Partnership for Transparency, National Construction Industry Council, CoST Malawi, African Institute of Corporate Citizenship, and Integrity Platform and is funded by the European Union. UNIK, operating out of Lilongwe, Malawi, was contracted to perform the technical updating of the platform. Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera is a strong proponent of CoST Malawi and the IPPI was officially launched with a speech delivered by the President on July 12, 2022. He obliged procurement entities to upload all relevant and up-to-date documents and project information on the IPPI by August 31, 2022. A tremendous effort was put into raising awareness of public officials about the IPPI and procuring entities, civil society organizations, and media representatives were trained on how to use the platform. As a result, within the first six months of its launch, the IPPI has data from approximately 145 projects, worth 3.5 trillion Kwacha ($3.44 billion). This project data was uploaded by 36 registered procuring entities. The expectation is that the milestone of achieving OC4IDS accreditation will ensure that more projects are uploaded onto the platform and that the data uploaded can be used to achieve greater transparency and accountability in public infrastructure procurement. This photo shows President Lazarus Chakwera with representatives of CoST Malawi. (Photo courtesy of the State House Malawi – Office of the President)

President Lazarus Chakwera Obliges all Malawian Procuring Entities to Upload Data on IPPI by August 31

by Andrew Wells On July 12, 2022, President Chakwera gave a rousing speech on the grounds of the Mtiti Primary School in Dowa, Malawi to signify the launch of the M1 Road rehabilitation. He declared the road’s rehabilitation to be an initiative that would connect Malawians as well as facilitate trade and positive relations along the route from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Durban, South Africa. The President cited the Infrastructure Platform for Public Infrastructure (IPPI), developed by the EU-funded project, “Strengthening the Capacity of CSOs to Promote Transparency and Accountability in Public Infrastructure Projects in Malawi,” which is being managed by the Partnership for Transparency, AICC/IP and NCIC/CoST Malawi, as a vital tool for ensuring the success of the project. He further obliged procurement entities to upload all relevant and up-to-date project information on the IPPI by August 31. President Chakwera speaking that the launch of the M1 Road Rehabilitation As the M1 Road is the major route, running north-south, it connects with all other major roads in the country. Its rehabilitation will thus drive development throughout the country. President Chakwera noted the benefits that the road’s rehabilitation would bring, such as reduced costs for transport, reduced road accidents, construction jobs, improved tourism, agriculture and governance, and a general rise in development, which would cut across the country. The President expressed gratitude towards the European Union and European Investment Bank, which is committing around 100 million Euros to this major infrastructure project. He also noted other road rehabilitation projects, for which the planning is underway. These include, the M5 between Benga and Dwangwa, being financed through the African Development Bank and OPEC Fund for International Development; the road between Liwonde and Matawale, being financed through the World Bank; and the M1 and M8 roads being financed by the African Development Bank. The President called on all development partners to deliver tangible benefits such as these to ensure Malawi’s sustainable development. President Chakwera also cited three dangers that could threaten the success of this project and which therefore must be avoided. The first was corruption, calling on all those involved in the project to account for all funds. The second was poor standards, both in the physical quality of the road and any delays in completing the project. The third danger was lack of accountability. The President noted his becoming the CoST Malawi National Champion in April of 2021. He cited section 57, subsection 3 of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets (PPDA) Act, which obliges procuring entities to disclose all material project information in compliance with transparency. The President pointed to the IPPI, developed by CoST Malawi as part of the “Strengthening the Capacity of CSOs to Promote Transparency and Accountability in Public Infrastructure Projects in Malawi” project. He placed the responsibility on procuring entities to upload project data on the IPPI by August 31, 2022. To learn more, join the conversation on social media: On Twitter: @CostMalawi/@PTFund On Facebook: Partnership for Transparency On LinkedIn: Partnership for Transparency

His Excellency Dr. Lazarus Chakwera, President of Malawi, Meets with CoST Team

As the Malawi Infrastructure Transparency and Accountability Project continues, the President of Malawi, His Excellency Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has agreed to become the CoST Malawi Champion. CoST Champions play a vital role in the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative (CoST)’s work to engage with public officials in each of its target countries and integrate infrastructure transparency into public dialogue and policy.

Project Launch: Infrastructure Transparency and Accountability in Malawi

On March 8, 2021, the EU-funded Malawi Infrastructure Transparency and Accountability Project was officially launched through a virtual event. The project, entitled, “Strengthening the Capacity of CSOs to Promote Transparency and Accountability in Public Infrastructure Projects in Malawi” will train civil society organizations (CSOs) in Malawi to monitor infrastructure deals and hold officials accountable. This project will also demonstrate the added value of CSO actors in efforts to enhance transparency and combat corruption.

Malawi Procurement Monitoring Project Begins Implementation

Following several years of project design and relations building with Malawian and international organizations, PTF completed a full proposal for funding from the European Union for a procurement monitoring project: Strengthening the Capacity of CSOs to Promote Transparency and Accountability in Public Infrastructure Projects in Malawi.

Funding for the project was approved in August 2019 and the project was scheduled to begin in November 2019, but implementation was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the COVID-19 situation improved, the project commenced its activities in November 2020.

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Strengthening the Capacity of CSOs to Promote Transparency and Accountability in Public Infrastructure Projects in Malawi