Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST) has said there is need for transparency and accountability in the sector.
Joe Ching’ani of CoST made the call on Wednesday in Machinga during a daylong media training on Open Contracting organised by Youth Net and Counselling (Yoneco).
Speaking to Malawi24, Ching’ani said transparency is necessary and that is why his organisation drilled the journalists on open contracting.
He said it is good that stories concerning construction should be handled by members of the press who are well informed on the subject.
“CoST would want construction stories to be covered by the well informed media fraternity so that they should produce well balanced and truthful stories,” he said.
On his part, Yoneco’s partnership officer Austin Jere said his organization thought of drilling the journalists on matters of open contracting so that they should unearth filthy things happening in different district councils mainly in the construction industry.
“We are currently rolling out a project which is a citizen led advocacy for construction sector and now we think that media is very crucial in disseminating information to the public,” Jere said.
He added that government pumps a lot of money in the construction industry which most times end up in the pockets of some officers in the district councils.
Yoneco is implementing a citizen-led public contracting advocacy in construction sector project in two districts in the country namely; Phalombe and Lilongwe.
