The Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Malawi, Rabecca Adda-Dontoh, emphasized that Malawi has a greater potential to effectively combat corruption when everyone is provided with opportunities to actively confront it. These comments were made on Saturday in Balaka during the International Anti-Corruption Day celebrations, coinciding with the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s 25th-anniversary commemoration.
Dontoh advocated for the cultivation of an accountable culture among the youth by integrating modules addressing corruption into the education system, starting from primary school. This, she believes, is crucial for ensuring a future generation that is free from corruption.
She said: “Corruption affects the society; I always describe it in my own way as a scenario of a house in which the occupants start stealing the iron sheets. If the majority of the good ones do not come together to arrest the thieves, all of them will live without a roof.
“Let me commend government for a step forward taken in trying to instill a corrupt free generation by launching a book in the primary schools that will see pupils learning about corruption so that a generation free of corruption is guaranteed come 2063.”
She observed that corruption undermines the trust in institutions and legal frameworks to hold perpetrators accountable.
The UN Resident Coordinator said a culture of accountability, encouraging whistle blowers and rewarding integrity is paramount as far as the fight against corruption is concerned.
On his part, Chair of the National Integrity Committee, Jeff Kabondo said National Anti-Corruption Strategy II which was launched in 2019 stipulates that everyone must take part in ending corruption, which is the reason ACB instituted integrity committees to help combat corruption at institutional level.
The strategy launch saw the establishment of the Institutional Integrity Committee to spearhead the fight against corruption at institutional level as well as the establishment of a financial crimes court and a book launch for primary schools for learners to learn about evils of corruption
