By Staff Reporter

His Excellency the State President, Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has assured Malawians that the reforms agenda by his government is on course and will never derail.

Chakwera has also declared that Malawi is a leader and not a follower in good governance within the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).

Speaking when he officially launched the second National Action Plan (NAP) for Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Lilongwe, President Chakwera took a swipe at some critics for expressing skepticism over the success of his administration’s reforms agenda over the past two years.

Providing specific examples, President Chakwera states that if his government had not been implementing reforms, then Ministry of Finance could not have made progress and headway in negotiating the new Extended Credit Facility (ECF) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“If I had not been pursuing reforms,we couldn’t have succeeded in having a second Compact Program for the country,” said President Chakwera.

He added that if his government was inactive in pursuing reforms, the country couldn’t have enacted the access to information law as well as the Mine and Minerals Act.

“Those paying attention to what we are doing know that this OGP national plan we are launching today, is part of a larger ecosystem of reforms we are implementing,” he added.

The President, thereafter, urged all public institutions to embrace and take Malawi’s OGP membership seriously so as to make government business open and transparent to everyone.

Speaking earlier, Secretary to President and Cabinet (SPC) Colleen Zamba assured the nation that his office will diligently coordinate, monitor and evaluate the implementation of the plan which will be implemented from 2023 to 2025.