The Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) has lost hope on prospects of recovering about K700 million it invested in Capital Alliance, a firm which is undergoing liquidation processes.
Mec Chairperson Judge Chifundo Kachale told The Daily Times that the electoral body has learnt a lesson on the importance of following procedures when investing public resources in future operations.
Kachale, who said the decision was made by members of a past commission, revealed that Parliament keeps on pushing them to recover the money, which keeps on appearing despite being stuck outside Mec’s kitty.
He said Mec has, for now, no proper answer to the question of whether there is potential to recover the money.
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The Mec chairperson said they are only waiting on the regulator, namely the Reserve Bank of Malawi, to help recover the money through assets.
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“As of now, we have not been told by the regulator if the company had assets which may be sold so that we can recover the money.
“Now we have learnt a lesson that whenever we want to use money which belongs to Malawians, we should be following proper procedures. This investment was made [while] thinking that Malawians would benefit from the money but, looking at the current situation, we don’t think Malawians will benefit from the investment,” Kachale said.
Meanwhile, Public Accounts Committee of Parliament Chairperson Mark Botoman has described the development as frustrating.
“Otherwise, Parliament has not been silent on the issue as it constituted a joint committee of four committees to follow up on the matter.
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“Malawians might recall that the Speaker [of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara] instituted a joint committee of four oversight committees of Parliament to look into issues surrounding Capital Alliance. Now that Parliament has risen, I believe that the secretariat [of Parliament] will speed up the process of ensuring that the mandate of this joint committee is met as a matter of urgency,” Botoman said.
On his part, Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace National Coordinator Boniface Chibwana described the development as worrisome.
He said public resources need to be safeguarded.
“Otherwise, Mec should not lose hope but find other ways of ensuring that they recover the money.
“The decision to invest was good but we cannot afford to lose the money like that. We still need that money and let Mec push and recover the money,” Chibwana said.
In another development, Kachale has said the commission is comfortable with candidate nomination fees that are prevailing at the moment.
This is despite that the local unit, the Kwacha, has been devalued by over 75 percent since June 23 2020, when Malawians voted for president in the court-ordered election.
In the 2019 tripartite elections— which saw Malawians voting for ward councillors, members of Parliament and President— presidential candidates paid K2 million while those vying for parliamentary seats paid K500,000 for males and K250,000 for females.
Kachale, however, said, should there be a need, the issue of reviewing the fees cannot be thrown out of the equation.
