By Tenson Zobo
Investing in infrastructure is one of the best ways to stimulate and boost economic growth, create jobs and promote enterprise development, The National Constructional Industry Council of Malawi (NCIC) has said.
Addressing journalist and Civil Society Organizations in Lilongwe recently, Chairperson for Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST) Joe Ching’ani said public and organizational disclosures of information on projects can help industry save money and might lead to changes in design of projects.
He also highlights that positive impact of the investments often fall short of their full potential as a result of corruption and inefficiency.
He said: “The Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST), is a vital part of efforts to improve this situation. It is a targeted initiative to improve the value for money spent on public infrastructure by increasing transparency in the delivery of construction projects.
“CoST brings together the government, industry and civil society to disclose information on public sector infrastructure and enables citizens to hold decision-makers accountable”, he said.
Ching’ani also pointed that what makes the industry prone to misuse are the complex contractual arrangements, different project phases, requirements for permits and approvals among others.
NCIC Chief Executive, Linda Phiri during the meeting said CoST aims at curbing mismanagement, waste and corruption and may reduce risks to public safety from poor building practices.
“Through CoST it is possible to have better public infrastructure, reduced waste in public budgets as well as fairer competition in the private sector and increased opportunities for investors”, she said.
CoST Coordinator Lyford Gideon when presentinting CoST initiative says Journalist can play an important role in the country’s infrastructure if drilled more on the matter.
“We realized an existing gap in understanding of the issues of construction and infrastructure development not only with Journalist but also in the private sector and other sectors even in the homes. So we felt we start with a Fourth arm of the government so that increasingly cases of bribery, Extortion, Influence peddling, fraud, collusion and embezzlement should be dealt with”, he said.
According to Gideon, the training has widened the scope of the Journalist and it would make them responsible issues of Corruption in construction are accurately tickled.
