By Pemphero Malimba:
The Office of the Ombudsman has asked the Ministry of Justice to disqualify Hillary Chilomba and Oscar Taulo for the position of Director General of the Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) because there was maladministration in the shortlisting and interviewing of the two.
Ombudsman Grace Malera said this Friday in Lilongwe when disseminating findings of an inquiry into their recruitment process.
The inquiry, which was carried out between December last year and early this month, followed complaints from some anonymous persons who reported that there were irregularities in the process of shortlisting and interviewing the two for the position of the ACB Director General job.
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The complainants reportedly said the two did not meet minimum requirements for the job, citing that they were junior lawyers and lacked 10 years of work experience.
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Reading the findings, Malera said the law stipulates that the job’s requirement for the ACB boss position is, among others, 10 years of both post professional and academic experience in the legal profession.
However, Taulo and Chilomba did not meet the 10 years professional post qualification experience, as provided for in the Corrupt Practices Act, as they were only admitted to the bar in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
This was, however, the case despite the fact that according to preliminary findings, Taulo met all the job requirements as per advertisement in the local media which were possession of a Master’s degree in law, 10 years post academic qualification experience and five years post qualification experience in a senior management position.
However, Chilomba only met the Master’s degree in law possession and 10 years post academic qualification experience requirements but he did not meet the five years experience in a senior management position at the time of the shortlisting and undertaking of the interviews for the ACB boss job.
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“Their shortlisting and interviewing was irregular and un-procedural (as) it was based on an illegality and is therefore not tenable,” Malera said.
She has since directed the Ministry of Justice to among others, disqualify Chilomba and Taulo in the recruitment process of the job.
“If there are any other candidates on the list that the Ministry of Justice has, that do not also satisfy the threshold as provided in Section 6 sub Section 5 of the Corrupt Practices Act, they should also be set aside and disqualified,” she said.
Ministry of Justice spokesperson Frank Namangale said the ministry will scrutinise the report and thereafter make its position on the matter.
“Since the findings have just been delivered, our responsible officers have to look into it. They have to take their time to study it and come up with an informed decision,” Namangale said.
The ACB DG job fell vacant following the expiry of a contract of former chief, Martha Chizuma, in May last year.
Chilomba has been working as DG on an acting capacity since then.
After the advertisement of the job was published in the local papers, there were 36 applications out of which only 11 people were shortlisted and invited for interviews.
The 11 included Chilomba and Taulo.
