By Patricia Kapulula

Lilongwe, August 23, Mana: Deputy Secretary to the President and Cabinet, who is also Head of the Presidential Delivery Unit, Dr Janet Banda, says despite Malawi doing well in institution and structure in as far the fight against corruption is concerned, there is more to be done in terms of the fight itself.

She was speaking in Lilongwe on Thursday when she officially opened a day long Controlling Officers Forum.

She cited the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Institutional Integrity Committees (IIC) in government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as some of the structures and institutions put in place in the fight against corruption.

Over 100 MDAs have functional IICs since the National Anti-Corruption Strategy II was put in place in 2012.

“For the fight against corruption to be effective it needs leadership buy in. In this forum we have challenged and asked controlling officers, as leaders, to lead by example. Otherwise, it they are not pushing and are not implementing their mandate and taking their responsibility seriously in fighting corruption then nothing will work at the bottom,” she said.

ACB Acting Director General, Hilary Chilomba, appealed to controlling officers to strive to bring tremendous impact in the society by implementing anti-corruption activities through IICs.

He said it is important that controlling officers take internal mechanisms such as IICs seriously in regulating the conduct of corruption in their institutions.

“We are talking of IICs of which controlling officers are key. This meeting is a platform where we need to discuss issues and come up with way forward in as far as the fight against corruption is concerned,” Chilomba said.

Chairperson for the Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament, Peter Dimba, said there is need for collective action that builds a positive culture that upholds principles of accountability and integrity in the fight against corruption.

He said, as a Committee, they are geared to providing oversight role to IICs and make sure that those IICs that are not performing are summoned.

“Through that oversight role we have seen a number of IICs that were not doing well improving in their performance,” he said.

The forum drew together controlling officers from different MDAs to discuss issues of corruption and come up with a way forwarding in addressing corruption in the country.