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Corruption in Malawi: Causes, Consequences and Solutions.

Murry Siyasiya, BSoc (Econ); MA (Econ); MBA (Data Sc.)1

Abstract
Malawi, a small landlocked country in southeastern Africa, continues to face various socio-
economic challenges, among them being corruption. This study, corruption in Malawi aimed at
investigating the main causes, consequences and solutions for corruption in Malawi. It has been
uncovered from the study that corruption is indeed a serious problem in Malawi with the most
common forms of corruption being misallocations of government funds, bribery, theft of public funds
including physical assets, collusion during contract awarding processes, theft of funds from
parastatals and money laundering. It has also been found that government ministries, parastatals, The
Malawi Police Service (MPS), government hospitals’ clinicians, parliamentarians, mining sectors are
the most actors and institutions that are characterized by corrupt practices. The most cited effects of
corruption in Malawi have been found to be economic underperformance (underdevelopment) and
poverty perpetuation.
Greed, lack of transparency, poverty, lack of rule of law, low salaries, cheap politics, weak
institutions, lack of serious enforcement mechanisms, inefficient judiciary and power imbalances
have been found to be the main causes of corruption in Malawi. Most of Malawians also think that
stiff punishments to corruption offenders, public sector reforms to deal away with unnecessary
bureaucracies and effective law enforcement, increased transparency when it comes to use of funds
through necessary access to information laws, rule of law and strong political will to end corruption;
which need to be implemented by the president, government ministers, and law making and
enforcement agencies such as the police, judiciary and parliamentarians; are very crucial in the fight
against corruption. It has also been uncovered through this study that dealing with corruption should
therefore result into improved economic performance and reduction of poverty in Malawi.

Keywords
Malawi, corruption.

1
Economics and Statistics Lecturer at Malawi Institute of Journalism (MIJ); Faculty Member at Blantyre International
University (BIU), Economics Department; Director and Lead Consultant at MS Consult; Chief Analyst at O-Hub Malawi,
Board Member for SALIFENET Malawi.

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Introduction
Malawians continue to face various social economic challenges. O-Hub Malawi (2022)
conducted a survey to gain a better understanding of the top socio-economic problems faced by
Malawians and found corruption to be on top of the list of the social economic huddles that Malawians
are facing. This research was therefore undertaken 1) To investigate the most common forms of
corruption in Malawi. 2) To found out the most corrupt officers and institutions in Malawi. 3) To
investigate the major causes of corruption in Malawi. 4) To investigate the major effects of corruption
in Malawi. 5) To investigate the practical solutions to corruption in Malawi. 6) To find out the major
actors in dealing with corruption in Malawi.

Key Literature
Corruption has been identified as a significant challenge facing many countries, including
Malawi. The detrimental effects of corruption on economic development, social welfare, and political
stability have made it a critical area of research and concern. Studies including that conducted by
Mwale and Gondwe (2018) indicate the most common forms of corruption in Malawi include bribery,
embezzlement of public funds, nepotism, abuse of power, and political corruption. These forms of
corruption were found to occur across various sectors, including the government, judiciary, police,
and public service. A study by Jamali (2019) highlighted the role of high-ranking officials and
politicians in perpetuating corruption. The study found that corrupt officers often held positions of
power, allowing them to manipulate public resources for personal gain. Additionally, the research
revealed that certain institutions, such as the police and customs department, were particularly prone
to corruption.
A study by Mkandawire and Mkandawire (2021) investigated the major causes of corruption
in Malawi. The research identified factors such as weak governance structures, low salaries for public
officials, lack of accountability, and limited transparency as significant contributors to corruption.
Political interference, cultural norms, and a lack of ethical awareness were also found to play a role
in perpetuating corrupt practices.
Studies have also revealed that corruption has far-reaching effects on the social, economic,
and political landscape of Malawi. A study by Chirwa and Mlenga (2020) examined the effects of
corruption on economic development in Malawi and found that corruption hindered foreign direct
investment, reduced public trust in government, and diverted resources away from essential services,
such as healthcare and education. Additionally, corruption contributed to social inequality and
undermined the rule of law.
It has also been argued by most researchers that addressing corruption requires a multi-faceted
approach involving various stakeholders. A study by Mlotha (2022), for example, explored practical
solutions to corruption in Malawi. The research emphasized the importance of strengthening anti-
corruption laws, enhancing accountability mechanisms, and promoting transparency in public
institutions. Furthermore, the study recommended increasing public awareness and education about
the consequences of corruption to foster a culture of integrity.

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A study by Kalongonda et al. (2023) examined the major actors involved in dealing with
corruption in Malawi. The research identified government agencies, civil society organizations,
international donors, and the media as key players. These actors played a crucial role in exposing
corrupt practices, advocating for policy reforms, and supporting anti-corruption initiatives.
This study was undertaken with the objective of corroborating the findings of various studies
mentioned earlier, given the substantial number of interventions targeting corruption in African
nations, including Malawi. The methodology employed in this study sought to ensure extensive
participation of individuals from diverse regions across Malawi. By involving a wide range of
Malawians in this research, a more comprehensive and representative perspective could be obtained.
This approach aimed to capture the diverse experiences, opinions, and insights of the local
population, enabling a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with
combating corruption in Malawi.
The inclusive nature of this study ensures that the conclusions drawn are more robust and
applicable to the broader context of the country. By encompassing the perspectives of Malawians
from various regions, this research aims to contribute to the development of targeted and effective
anti-corruption measures in Malawi and serve as a valuable resource for policymakers, practitioners,
and scholars working towards building a more transparent and accountable society.

Findings and Discussion

Demographics: Gender, Marital Status, Residence, Economic Activity & Education Levels
Ninety (90) respondents had completed the questionnaire and shared their perspectives on
corruption in Malawian, by the time this report was being compiled. Although responses continue to
trickle into the data dashboard, only the information from the 90 respondents were the ones that were
taken into account in the analysis as findings presented in this report.
Out of all the 90 respondents, 55 (61%) were male and 35 (39%) were female. For age, the
majority (61%) of respondents which were also 55 in total number were aged 18 to 27. Those aged
between 28 and 36 were 16 in total, representing 18% of total number of respondents. The rest (19
or 21%) were aged 37 and above. It should be noted that out of those aged over 37 had a majority
aged over 41 as they were 10 in total. Regarding marital status, 28 (31%) are married, 59 (66%) are
single while the rest (3 or 3%) are either divorced or widowed.
According to the survey results, the majority (79%) of the respondents are based in the
southern region of Malawi as they were 71 in number; followed by 16 (18%) respondents who
reported to be based in the central region. The rest (3%) of the respondents are either based outside
Malawi or northern region of Malawi.
Most (47%) of the 90 respondents are working class since 42 out of the ninety (90) reported
to be working. The rest reported to either engage in private businesses, to be at school (students)
while others have no economic activity such as housewives.
In terms of highest education levels, the survey has a good representation from Malawians
from all levels of education as shown:

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Highest Level of Number of

Education Respondents
Certificate 14
Diploma 27
First Degree 29
Master's Degree 8
MSCE 11
PSLC 1
Grand Total 90

Many respondents were first degree holders followed by college diploma holders, college
certificate holders, Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) holders and master’s degree
holders.
It can therefore be noted that almost all of the classes (be it in terms of gender, age, marital
status, regions, economic activity and education status) have been represented despite the fact that
most of the respondents reside in the southern region. It is worth mentioning that some respondents
who are currently living abroad also participated in the survey and shared their views on corruption
haunting Malawians. This indicates that the survey received a diverse range of responses from
individuals representing a broad range of demographic characteristics.

Common Forms of Corruption in Malawi

The survey asked respondents to indicate seriousness of poverty in Malawi on a 5-point scale
and the majority (81%) of them, 73 out of the 90 indicated that corruption is a very serious problem
in Malawi. The following tables provide details of these findings including the most common forms
of corruption in Malawi, as cited by the respondents:

Level of Forms of Corruption Citations

Frequency Bribery 23
Corruption Collusion such as during tender and contract awarding 10
1 4% Ghost workers 2
Misallocation of funds 24
2 2% Money laundering 6
3 6% Nepotism 2
Policy manipulation 3
4 7% Theft of funds from parastatals 6
5 81% Theft of public resources including assets 12
Tribalism 2
Grand Total 100% Grand Total 90

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 As indicated in the preceding tables, the most cited and therefore believed to be the common
types of corruption were: Misallocations of government funds, bribery, theft of public funds
including physical assets, collusion during contract awarding processes, theft of funds from
parastatals and money laundering.

Most Corrupt Officers and Institutions in Malawi

The findings indicate that government officials, followed by politicians, followed by
police officers, Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) officers, ministers and lawyers are the most
corrupt in Malawi. The following are the details:

The preceding illustrations further indicate that the following are the systems and
institutions most infiltrated by corruption in Malawi: Government ministries; parastatals such
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as Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA), Electricity Supply Commission of Malawi (ESCOM),
water boards and Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC); The
Malawi Police Service (MPS); government hospitals; parliament; and mining sectors.

Causes of Corruption in Malawi

The prerecorded responses indicate that the causes of corruption (in the order of most cited)
are: Greed, as indicated by 70 Malawians or 78% of the respondents; lack of transparency
mechanisms such as lack of effective access to information policies, as indicated by 43
Malawians or 48% of the respondents; poverty which leads to search for more income by any
means, as indicated by 39 Malawians (43% of respondents); and lack of rule of law (as indicated
by 36 respondents or 40% of all respondents)

The data also clearly indicates and singles out greed amongst those that indulge in
various forms of corruption, as indicated earlier, as the most cause of corruption in Malawi. In
addition to the prerecorded responses, respondents were also asked to explain the causes of
corruption in Malawi and the following is a summary of their responses:

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 Therefore, it has been found that the most cited causes of corruption in Malawi remain greed,
poverty, politics and weak rule of law. Greed has been cited by 45 respondents, poverty as cited
by 32 respondents, low salaries as cited by 9 Malawians, and politics and weak laws as cited by
7 and 5 respondents respectively. Below are some of the explanations given by the respondents:
• Poor people are joining politics as business and there is political tolerance to
corruption.
• Judiciary is rotten in Malawi, and it takes forever to conclude cases.
• Low salaries cause people to look for other alternatives such as corruption.
• Most corruption cases are never concluded in Malawi and others involved in the
corruption web are not arrested because of political interests.
• Corruption has just become a way of life in Malawi to the extent that a lot of people
believe that the only way to succeed in life is through corruption.
• Greedy and self-centered people only want to accumulate as much as possible wealth
for themselves at the expense of poor people.
• The love of power is the main cause of corruption as most people who are corrupt are
so because they have love for power, they want to look strong financially to enable them
to continue ruling.
• The other cause of corruption is excessive love for wealth as most people who are
corrupt do not want to go through approved means of success and they do not care that
hard work pays but rather they believe corruption makes them wealthier.
• Malawi government officials are just interested in enriching themselves without regard
to the effects of their actions to the poor.
• Lack of stiff punishments result into more corruption cases.
• Lack of seriousness in dealing with individuals implicated in corruption cases is the
main cause of more corruption in our country.
• Others become corrupt simply to win contracts.

The respondents were asked to rank the extent to which the causes of corruption are serious
in Malawi and the following are the findings:

Weak Lack of
Level of Lack of Inefficient Weak Power
Greed Rule of Enforcement Culture Poverty
Problem Transparency Judiciary Institutions Imbalances
Law Mechanism
Level 1 3 1 5 7 3 2 22 4 4
Level 2 3 3 7 9 7 7 17 10 4
Level 3 8 16 10 23 11 20 21 17 14
Level 4 14 15 19 19 24 19 9 27 14
Level 5 62 55 49 32 45 42 21 32 54
Grand
90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90
Total

Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the following order indicates extent to
which the above factors are contributing to high levels of corruption in Malawi: 1) Greed (as
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voted to be serious by 62 respondents), 2) lack of transparency (indicated to be serious by 55
respondents), 3) poverty (indicated be serious by 54 respondents), 4) weak rule of law (indicated
to be serious by 49 respondents), 5) weak institutions (indicated to be serious by 45
respondents), 6) lack of serious enforcement mechanism (indicated to be serious by 42
respondents), and 7) inefficient judiciary and power imbalances (indicated to be serious by 32
respondents).

Effects of Corruption in Malawi

The respondents were asked to explain the effects of corruption in Malawi. The most
cited effects of corruption in Malawi are economic underperformance (underdevelopment) and
poverty perpetuation. The following are the details:

These findings indicate that all the economic related and extreme poverty problems that
Malawi is facing should largely be attributed to corruption. Dealing with corruption should
therefore result into improved economic performance and reduction of poverty in Malawi.
Actual quotations from responses of the respondents are as follows:
• Corruption slows down development as funds which were expected to benefit all
Malawians are diverted to someone's pocket, making development projects to die on the
way, those that completed are done way beyond dateline and yet other crucial projects
not even being implemented despite approval or release of funds.
• Corruption results in low or zero development.
• Corruption makes the people who are meant to benefit from resources continue suffering
in dire poverty as funds are misallocated.
• Due to corruption, government fails to provide the basic social services and therefore
little or no progress on development projects of a country.

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 • Corruption results in derailed development, poor social services and perpetual extreme
poverty.
• Corruption makes the poor getting poorer, results into substandard work and lack of
essential social services and bad reputation of a country.
• Due to corruption, Malawi will remain one of the poorest countries.
• Corruption leads to reduced economic growth, stifled investment.
• Corruption undermines business climate and limit economic growth.
• Because of poverty, poor people will continue to be poor, and the country shall never
develop because productive people can die due to hunger.
• Corruption leads to capitalism where the rich continue to become richer and richer at
the expense of the poor who also become poorer and poorer.
• Corruption leads to widening the social gap between the rich and the poor.
• Corruption leads to the selection of unexperienced and nonproductive employees to
undertake crucial and development related tasks which eventually fail.

Suggested Solutions to Corruption in Malawi

Most Malawians suggested the following as solutions to corruption in Malawi: Stiff
punishments to corruption offenders, public sector reforms to deal away with unnecessary
bureaucracies and effective law enforcement, increased transparency when it comes to use of
funds through necessary access to information laws, and rule of law and strong political will.

Below are some of the actual responses and reactions from Malawians with regard with
solutions to poverty:
• To end corruption, we should kill all corrupt politicians, yes kill them.
• If it were possible for judiciary to be "judiciary" then corruption would end.
• To deal with corruption, we should introduce stiff punishments and increase salaries of
civil servants to avoid corruption temptations.

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• Government has to implement tough laws on corruption, equivalent to shariah laws.
• To end corruption, all leaders should leave politics aside and do the fight against
corruption diligently without favor of anyone perpetrating the vice.
• To deal with poverty, Malawians need to have a spirit of thinking about the lives of
others and not only your own and family.
• To end corruption, there should be due diligence when choosing leaders to ensure utmost
integrity among duty bearers.
• The country needs enough political will to help in the fight against corruption.
• We need to join hands as Malawians so that everyone should take part in the fight
against corruption in Malawi.
• To deal with corruption problem, everything should start from the leaders, there should
not be selective justice when top officials are in involved in wrongdoing, there should be
speedy prosecution of corruption cases and stiff penalties so that they would be offenders
should be deterred from corruption as well.
• There should be massive monitoring of most corrupt public institutions such police,
immigration, road traffic, public hospitals and this is achievable only when the
government is indeed serious about the monitoring, firing, and prosecuting all public
officers proved to be in the wrong because as it is now, nothing can change because the
government is not serious about corruption.
• We need to be patriotic to our country to deal with corruption.
• We should implement tough laws like in China where death sentence is possible for those
that are involved in corruption, this helps to instill fear and mind set change therefore
can lead to curb corruption.
• It is also important to make the Malawi Anti-Corruption Bureau independent so that it
can discharge its duties properly without political interference.
• There is a need for strict measures to monitor corrupt practices and deliver real
punishment to offenders.
• Anyone involved in corruption should be killed or be allowed to spend the rest of their
lives with fellow thieves in jail.
• Need to reduce influence of politics in statutory bodies.
• Clean the government as a whole and get a new set of rulers to end corruption.
• There is a need to improve governance issues including strengthening anti-corruption
laws and the independence of the judiciary.
• There is need to promote a culture of integrity and ethical behavior through civic
education to reduce corruption.
• It is high time that the government should start setting good examples by extremely
punishing those involved in corruption.
• There is need to increase salaries so that workers cannot easily be tempted to steal.
• The law should stop taking side when passing judgement to law oppressors.
• There should be hefty prison sentences for corruption cases.
• Love is key to solving the problem of corruption as it teaches love for others.
• Government should be seizing all assets from those that are involved in corruption and
share these assets with the most affected individuals.

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 • The Malawi economy should be sold for some time, say for five years, to a corrupt free
country such as China to deal with corruption problem.

Major Actors in Dealing with Corruption in Malawi

Most Malawians think that the president, government ministers, and law making and
enforcement agencies such as the police, judiciary and parliamentarians are very crucial in the
fight against corruption by implementing the suggestions indicated above. The following are
the detailed findings:

Conclusions
It has been uncovered from the study that corruption is indeed a serious problem in
Malawi with the most common forms of corruption being misallocations of government funds,
bribery, theft of public funds including physical assets, collusion during contract awarding
processes, theft of funds from parastatals and money laundering. It has also been found that
government ministries, parastatals (such as MRA, ESCOM, water boards and ADMARC), The
Malawi Police Service, government hospitals, parliamentarians, mining sectors are the most
actors and institutions that are characterized by corrupt practices. The most cited effects of
corruption in Malawi have been found to be economic underperformance (underdevelopment)
and poverty perpetuation.
Greed, lack of transparency, poverty, lack of rule of law, low salaries, cheap politics,
weak institutions, lack of serious enforcement mechanisms, inefficient judiciary and power
imbalances have been found to be the main causes of corruption in Malawi. Most of Malawians
also think that stiff punishments to corruption offenders, public sector reforms to deal away with
unnecessary bureaucracies and effective law enforcement, increased transparency when it
comes to use of funds through necessary access to information laws, rule of law and strong
political will to end corruption; which need to be implemented by the president, government
ministers, and law making and enforcement agencies such as the police, judiciary and
parliamentarians; are very crucial in the fight against corruption.

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 It has also been uncovered through this study that dealing with corruption should
therefore result into improved economic performance and reduction of poverty in Malawi. In
other words, there is a vicious cycle between poverty, underdevelopment and corruption.

References
Chirwa, E., & Mlenga, H. (2020). Corruption and Economic Development in Malawi. Journal
of Economics and Sustainable Development, 11(4), 79-87.
Jamali, A. (2019). Understanding the Role of High-Ranking Officials and Politicians in
Perpetuating Corruption in Malawi. Journal of Governance and Regulation, 8(2), 74-
85.
Kalongonda, A., Chikopa, F., & Namangale, L. (2023). Major Actors in Dealing with
Corruption in Malawi: A Case Study of Government Agencies, Civil Society
Organizations, International Donors, and the Media. Journal of Public Administration,
Finance and Law, 15(2), 135-148.
Mkandawire, T., & Mkandawire, R. (2021). Causes of Corruption in Malawi: A Critical
Analysis. Journal of Public Administration, Finance and Law, 14(3), 155-166.
Mlotha, E. (2022). Practical Solutions to Corruption in Malawi: Strengthening Anti-Corruption
Laws, Enhancing Accountability, and Promoting Transparency. Journal of Governance
and Regulation, 11(1), 45-57.
Mwale, B. M., & Gondwe, T. M. (2018). Forms and Prevalence of Corruption in Malawi:
Insights from a Survey. Journal of Public Administration, Finance and Law, 12(2), 108-
121.
O-Hub Malawi. (2022). Malawi Socio-Economic Problems Survey Report.

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