CoST Malawi – Infrastructure Transparency Initiative - Information platform for Public Infrastructure

To drive value for money from investment in public infrastructure.

The Red Flags Algorithm leverages the IPPI’s centralized database—containing project details from planning to completion—to detect anomalies that may signal corruption or inefficiency.

Government, Private Sector and Civil Society.

Government & Civil Society - Through the Red Flags Algorithm, IPPI has widened opportunities for public engagement and scrutiny. IPPI empowers citizens, journalists, and civil society organizations to access real‑time data and monitor public projects independently. Historically, Malawi struggled with fragmented, paper‑based records, which were prone to error and prevented effective public monitoring. Before IPPI, the absence of centralized infrastructure data meant that citizens could not easily identify procurement risks or hold agencies accountable.

Private Sector - The implementation of the Red Flags system has also empowered contractors and industry actors to identify and report mis procurement risks. CoST Malawi has actively trained contractors on how to interpret and use red flags on the IPPI platform. The CoST Malawi Chair, Engineer Samuel Bitoni, emphasized that contractors are “central to the delivery of public projects” and play a key role in ensuring that red flags raised on IPPI lead to corrective action.

Implementation of ‘Red Flags’ Algorithm. The introduction of the Red Flags Algorithm on Malawi’s Information Platform for Public Infrastructure (IPPI) (www.ippi.mw) represents one of the most significant advancements in public infrastructure transparency and accountability in the country. As a digital governance tool developed under CoST Malawi, the algorithm enhances public procurement oversight by automatically identifying unusual patterns, inconsistencies, or high‑risk indicators (“red flags”) within publicly uploaded project data. This has transformed how infrastructure monitoring is conducted in Malawi, enabling proactive detection of mis procurement risks and strengthening institutional accountability. Training session for contractors in 2025 taught how to use IPPI data to detect procurement anomalies, strengthening their ability to act as both beneficiaries and watchdogs of infrastructure development.