MALAWI: US cash injection to fight corruption

Photo: US Embassy in Malawi

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has promised to eradicate corruption

JOHANNESBURG, 27 September 2005 (IRIN) - The US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the Malawi government have announced the launch of a US $20.92 million programme aimed at fighting corruption and spurring long-term economic growth and development in the southern African country. MCC vice-president Charles Sethness and Malawi's finance minister, Goodall Gondwe, announced the signing of a Threshold Country Plan (TCP) in Washington on 23 September, according to a US government press release. The MCC, a US government corporation launched last year to work with some of the poorest countries in the world, is based on the principle that aid is most effective when it reinforces good governance, economic freedom, and investments that promote economic growth and eliminate extreme poverty. During the press briefing Sethness praised Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika for taking some "very bold and courageous stands - we applaud him for his leadership in tackling the issue, and we agree with Malawi that fighting corruption and improving fiscal management could be a catalyst for economic growth, for wealth creation and poverty reduction." The plan had 14 steps, which included preventing corruption and improving fiscal oversight; encouraging a free and fair press to report on transparency and corruption; and strengthening the legal system - from police to courts - to enable it to identify, confront and prosecute corruption cases. Gondwe told the press briefing the MCC programme was unique, in that Malawi was asked to state its goals and the proposed strategies for reaching those goals, rather than dictating specific steps and timetables to beneficiary countries, as other programmes often did. Malawian political analyst Boniface Dulani described the US assistance as a "much-needed cash injection" for a battle-weary Mutharika, "whose priority has shifted somewhat from [fighting] corruption to fighting for his survival, as he is possibly facing impeachment". Political bickering between Mutharika and his political rival, former president of the country and now chairman of the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF), Bakili Muluzi, has been raging since June, when the UDF proposed an impeachment motion because Mutharika had left the party after it sponsored him in the national elections. Mutharika formed his own political organisation, the Democratic Progressive Party, consigning the UDF to the role of opposition. "The president's momentum to fight corruption has fizzled out a bit since he took office last year," noted Dulani. Mutharika's campaign against corruption was revived earlier this month, when he fired a minister from his cabinet reportedly to pave the way for an Anti-Corruption Bureau investigation into allegations that he had bought a luxury car with World Bank funds.