Agriculture
CISANET calls for transparency in award of contracts
January 24, 2020 / Tawonga Nyirenda Mayuni
The Civil Society Agriculture Network Malawi (CISANET) has stressed the need for transparency in the award of contracts in the agricultural sector in order to curb corruption, which is a stumbling block to growth of the sector.
CISANET Director of Planning Alfred Kambwiri said in Mzuzu during a media training workshop on open contracting, which it organized in partnership with the Malawi Economic Justice Network and Hivos Malawi, that there is need to uphold transparency and accountability in the contracting processes if Malawi’s economy is to adequately benefit from the agriculture sector.
Kambwiri told the journalists that as a watch dog of the society, the media needs to play a role in ensuring that there is openness in the procurement process for goods and services.
“As CISANET, we recognize the crucial role that the media has in ensuring accountability and transparency, so we organized this training because we believe that if the media is equipped in the ethics of accountability and transparency in open contracting they can do a very great job to actually influence those ideals in the agriculture sector and all other sectors in government where procurement processes are done’ said Kambwiri
Kambwiri pointed out that almost 70% of government’s budget is spent on contracts that go through procurement which calls for the media to play an oversight role in ensuring that there is transparency in public procurement processes.
“A lot of money is spent on contracts, and if the procurement processes are not more accountable and transparent, we will lose a lot of money as a nation,” he said.
Open contracting is about publishing and using open, accessible and timely information on government contracts to engage citizens and businesses in identifying and fixing problems.
It also looks at issues of accountability and transparency in the procurement of goods and services in the public sector.
One of the workshop participants, Alex Banda of Zodiak Broadcasting Station, described the training as useful saying it has enlightened the journalists on how government undertakes procurement processes for contracts.
He said with the knowledge gained from the training, the journalists will be able to competently carry out investigations regarding breaches of procurement procedures in public institutions.
CISANET is implementing a project on open contracting in Mzimba South.
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