The Public Appointments Committee (Pac) of Parliament has ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to recall all staff, working as principal officers at various embassies, whose appointments were not approved by the committee.
Pac Chairperson Joyce Chitsulo made the directive when the ministry’s officials, led by Principal Secretary Bernard Sande, appeared before committee members on Tuesday.
“Where there is no ambassador or high commissioner, the one in control is the principal officer, who needs Malawians’ approval to represent them and the approval is done through Pac,” Chitsulo said.
Members of the committee told ministry officials that anyone who was deployed to the missions after January 2024, after Pac wrote the ministry on the issue, is deemed illegally working at the embassies.
- Advertisement -
Pac summoned Sande and his team to explain their side of the story on the controversy surrounding former lawmaker David Bisnowaty’s appointment as Malawi’s chargé d’affaires to the State of Israel.
- Advertisement -
The committee is accusing the ministry of continuously violating the law.
“We maintain that the Public Finance Management Act subjects controlling officers to it and, as in the case of Israel, Bisnowaty is the controlling officer.
“We want to avoid a case of abuse, where government can decide to send someone in acting capacity, say for four years, to avoid Pac’s scrutiny,” Chitsulo said.
She said up to 2018, in line with best practices, all principal officers, including consular generals, were appearing before the committee before they started work in missions.
- Advertisement -
However, Sande backed government’s position of not subjecting chargé d’affaires to Pac’s scrutiny, saying the process is not a requirement.
He insisted that when government appoints ambassadors and high commissioners, they will “surely” appear before Pac.
“For example, Bisnowaty, who is a principal officer in Israel, is a Malawian of Jewish origin. He has been a member of Parliament before and he is just helping the Malawi Government for free; using his resources,” Sande said.
Meanwhile, some civil society organisations are pushing the government to remove Bisnowaty from the position pending his confirmation by Pac.
