The Office of the Director of Public Officers’ Declarations (ODPOD) says it received around 18,100 asset declarations from listed officers in the 2025/2026 financial year, an increase from the 15,590 declarations received in the previous financial year.

ODPOD Public Relations Officer Stella Kaliati says the office is yet to establish the exact number of public officers who were expected to submit their declarations, as it is in the process of finalising the 2025/2026 compliance assessment exercise.

“This is a process that is expected to be finalised in October. Once it is done, the exact figure of how many were expected to declare and the compliance rate will be known. The report will then be laid before the National Assembly by the Minister of Justice and published for public access,” said Kaliati.

Kaliati said compliance has increased by 15 percent over the past six years, reaching 87 percent in the 2024/2025 financial year.

However, she said the office has previously faced compliance challenges with large-staff institutions such as the Immigration Department, Malawi Prison Service and some councils in the Northern Region.

“Currently, the assessment compliance report for the 2025/2026 financial year is not yet ready, so the problematic Listed Public Officers (LPOs) and institutions are yet to be identified,” added Kaliati.

She further highlighted a number of challenges facing ODPOD that limit the office’s ability to discharge its duties.

For instance, she said the office faces financial constraints, which affect public education activities and physical verification exercises.

She also highlighted limited human resources, saying that out of the 49 staff required by the office, ODPOD has only 20 staff to handle declarations filed by all LPOs across the country.

“We have only one office located in Lilongwe, which makes it hard for most listed public officers to reach us, especially during the receiving period for declaration submissions. Overall, it makes it hard for the office to efficiently handle declarations across the country,” she added.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency (CSAT) views the challenges as a lack of commitment on the part of government in dealing with corruption matters.

CSAT Executive Director Willy Kambwandira said, considering the key functions of ODPOD in the country’s fight against corruption, the challenges facing the office are unfortunate.

He noted that corruption can start when officers fail to declare their assets or under-declare them, adding that the financial challenges affecting public education and physical verification show that the office is not fully capacitated.

According to Section 18 of the assets law, a listed public officer who, without reasonable cause, fails to submit the required declaration within the prescribed time shall, subject to the Constitution and any other written law, be liable to dismissal from public office.