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Documents

Overview

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is the global leader in the fight against drugs, organized crime, corruption and terrorism with widely recognized expertise and specialization on issues pertaining to international cooperation in criminal matters. Established in 1997 through a merger between the United Nations Drug Control Programme and the Centre for International Crime Prevention, UNODC operates in all regions of the world through an extensive network of field offices.

The work of UNODC is guided by a broad range of legally binding international instruments and a set of United Nations standards and norms on crime prevention and criminal justice. The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) provides a global legally binding framework for preventing and combatting corruption, with 189 Parties. Malawi ratified the UNCAC on 4 December 2007.

The Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption was established pursuant to article 63 of the Convention to, inter alia, promote and review the implementation of the Convention. The implementation by Malawi of chapters II and V of the Convention was reviewed in the third year of the second review cycle, and the executive summary of that review was issued on 05 November 2023.

The executive summary noted that Malawi has enacted a law on declaration of assets, liabilities and business interests for listed public officers. The Public Officers’ (Declaration of Assets, Liabilities and Business Interests) Act provides the legal and institutional framework for the implementation of sections 88A and 213 of the Constitution of Malawi. The Office of the Director of Public Officers Declaration (ODPOD), established under Section 6 (1) of the Act, is responsible for the overall administration of the Act, including the enforcement, regulation, monitoring and verification of declarations of assets, liabilities and business interests. However, the implementation review report observed that the overall effectiveness of the implementation of the Act is hampered by the limited capacity of the ODPOD to receive, verify, analyze and make available reports and weak enforcement mechanisms.

The ODPOD commenced its operations in 2014 and formulated its first-ever strategic plan that was implemented from July 2018 to March 2023. In line with the Government of Malawi financial year and the imperative to position itself strategically to maximize its potential to implement its mandate effectively, the ODPOD plans to develop a new strategic plan that will run from 2024 to 2029.