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Perekezi ASM Consultants & Events, a non-profit organization in Malawi that promotes responsible and sustainable mining through research-driven consultancy services, has called on members of parliament to play a greater role in preventing corruption in the mining industry.
The group’s executive adviser, Chikomeni Manda, made the call during a training session for members of the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Climate Change held in Lilongwe on Thursday.
Manda noted that as the industry makes significant progress, parliamentarians should take on the oversight responsibility to ensure the industry has optimal accountability and transparency.
“Malawi has made progress in the mining industry. Then we have minerals, which are called energy transition minerals, and they are very important for the world to move away from fossil fuels to clean energy. So we thought it would be good to come here and engage with parliamentarians because there is a great risk of corruption in this industry, specifically transnational corruption,” he said.
During the training, officials from Perekezi ASM Consultants & Events and the Malawi Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (MWEITI) presented the findings of the corruption risk assessment.
However, Manda said the industry was vulnerable to bribery and corruption; hence preventive measures needed to be taken.
“But because we have just produced a corruption risk assessment, we have found some gaps in the record where corruption could have occurred. So as members of Congress who hold the government to account, we thought it wise to keep them informed to ensure that those gaps that we have seen do not occur,” he said.
In his speech, Werani Chilenga, chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Climate Change, lamented the delay in developing legislation that would pave the way for the implementation of the 2023 Minerals and Minerals Code.
Chilega said the bill addressed some of the concerns raised by civil society organizations.
“We hope that once the legislation is in place, everything will be in place. But civil society organisations should also know that mining is not as easy as we think. It will take some time and require a lot of investment,” he said.
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