Mining & Trade News

The newly launched report by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) under the umbrella of the Natural Resources Justice Network (NRJN) which scrutinized all eight Malawi Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (MWEITI) reports has identified gaps that are leading to underperformance of the sector.  

The gaps include anomalies in extractive revenue collection, production figures, conflicting tables and narratives and, mining bias and corruption in granting licenses.

In an interview with Mining and Trade Review on the sidelines of the launch of the report, Governance and Policy Consultant Mabvuto Bamusi said in revenue collection, the reports show that no revenues were collected by government agencies during the 2014/2015 financial year.

Bamusi said some reports show misplaced percentages on revenues by the sector, wrong percentage contribution of each government entity and, that revenues generated by company and by region are different from the grand total revenues generated by government agencies. He also said in the 2014/15 and 2015/16 financial years, Department of Mines did disclose the exact types of minerals and quantity of minerals extracted which were less than the corresponding quantity and value.  

“Under the 4th MWEITI report of 2017/2018, the type and number of minerals extracted were less than the corresponding quantity and value.”

“The 4th MWEITI (2017/18) report shows that the mining and quarrying contributed MK12,107-billion yet the 5th MWEITI first fiscal year (2018/19) report shows that it contributed K12,104.”

“On the other hand, the 5th MWEITI (2018/19 and 2019/20) report show that the mining and quarrying sector contributed MK12,594-billion at 0.84% of GDP, yet the 6th MWEITI (2020/2021) report shows that it contributed K52,748-billion at 0.74% of GDP,” said Bamusi.

He said the MWEITI reports leave out the regulations and legislative frameworks that are applicable in the forestry, oil and gas, and transport and public works sectors. He also disclosed that number of licenses awarded to different companies throughout the years have been fluctuating. For instance, there were 335 licenses issued in 2017/2018, 306 in 2018/19, 239 in 2019/2020 and a staggering high of 663 licenses in 2020/2021.

Bamusi said: “Page 40 to page 42 of 2018/19 and 2019/20 5th report copied everything from the 2017/2018 4th report.”

“The MWEITI reports disclose that the Minister of Mining is granted power and authority to negotiate mining contracts and that the central government is in full control of the extractive industry.”

“The industry is captured by elite business and political interests and incidents of corruption in granting of licenses: given the case of Illomba Granite.”

Coordinator for NRJN Kennedy Rashid said moving forward, they will engage the government, civil society organisations and private sector to advocate for reforms in terms of transparency and accountability.  

Rashid said: “The next step is to advocate for reforms because you cannot just advocate for reforms without evidence. “The study was initiated to see what is going on, and then have a basis on how we can advocate for reforms in the mining sector especially on transparency and accountability.”

“We are working hand in hand with government under Open Government Partnership and EITI itself while we meet civil society actors, government agencies and private sector through Chamber of Mines and Energy.”

The then Acting Director for the Department of Mines in the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, Mphatso Chikoti, who is now Director General of MMRA, hailed the report and promised to take the recommendations on board.

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