CSOs review MWEITI report

By Wahard Betha

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working in Malawi’s extractive sector under the umbrella of the Natural Resources Justice Network (NRJN) have commenced reviewing the first draft of the 6th Malawi Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (MWEITI) report covering the financial year 2020/21.

The MWEITI report is a tool used to ensure transparency and accountability in the collection and management of revenue from the extractive industry and natural resources in Malawi.

Speaking at their meeting in Lilongwe, Chairperson for NRJN Kossam Munthali said they called on the review meeting to scrutinize the draft report and come up with inputs for the final document.

Munthali said: We are here solely to review the draft MWEITI report which has just been released. Our position is to bring our inputs after the report has been drafted.”

“We are today conducting a consultative process to come up with CSOs position which can fit in the last product of the report which Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) and an Independent Administrator compiled covering the year 2020/2021.”

“So today we are reflecting, trying to bring some inputs to make sure the report meets the aspirations of CSOs. We expect that in few weeks we will finalize our consultations and we will be able to submit our inputs.”

Munthali expressed concern that despite having fruitful MWEITI reports, the country is not doing well in the sector citing that some recommendations keep on appearing in every report but are not implemented.

He said: “One of the areas where we are not doing fine is that even Department of Mines is not clearly disclosing the beneficial owners of some companies and this remains the major problem because as CSOs we are not getting clear explanations.”

“Our leaders need to have a deep understanding of these things so that they are able to take proper action.”

Programs Coordinator for Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy (CEPA) who is also Coordinator for Publish What You Pay Malawi Gloria Mijiga concurred with Kossam saying reappearing of recommendations drawn in the past reports is a clear indication that the government is showing less or no commitment to the extractive sector.

Mijiga observed that the government seems reluctant to address issues of license allocation that have been raised to Department of Mines on several occasions; and the issue of access to contracts from Department of Forestry which also continues to come out in the reports.  

She said: “The government failing to address some of the concerns we raise in every report might be on two bases. The first one is that they have legitimate reasons in terms of resources that will be required to address those issues such as bringing in a revenue management system that will track payments which would make a very big difference in terms of reconciliation process. The infrastructure investment is quiet significant.

“The other reason is lack of political will. I think government is not showing interest in addressing some issues that EITI raises.”

“What they have to know is that people are investing time and resources like today people have come here to review the report in a hope that we will come up with something substantive that will help our government to respond to the issues that are there.”

“You come back next year to see those issues are still there. If the government is not willing to address these issues, we cannot progress in the sector as a country.”

CEPA, NRJN, PWYP Malawi and other Civil Society Organizations are expected to meet EITI International Secretariat on the progress of the EITI process in Malawi.

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