How political capture of Parliament is sabotaging inquiries that would have provided answers to questions Malawians have on some of the controversial deals presided over by the administration
By Cathy Maulidi:
Malawians should forget that the current Parliament will ever conduct an inquiry in any matter of public concern and reach a logical conclusion, insiders have told Malawi News.
The warning comes after Public Accounts Committee (Pac) chairperson, Mark
Botomani, and his team dropped a bombshell on Tuesday that they would not conduct an inquiry they had planned into the controversy-ridden East Bridge fertiliser deal.
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The deal has been roundly criticised for its non-adherence to public procurement procedures.
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That government would pay back about one million tonnes of produce in return for the 300,000 metric tonnes of fertiliser it will get has also been subject of questions, including from institutions such as the World Bank.
It has also emerged that Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) did not vet the deal and that the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) could not even guide it because the transaction is well outside the provisions of Malawi’s public procurement laws.
In another indication yet that the deal is flawed, Minister of Finance Sosten Gwengwe announced last month that he had withdrawn the sovereign guarantee on advice from the Attorney General regarding its irregularities.
Amid unanswered questions, Pac stepped in to inquire – only for the committee to announce on Tuesday, the very day the inquiry was scheduled to start, that they would no longer continue with it.
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According to Botomani, speaking to the press, no money exchanged hands, hence no reason for Pac to investigate the deal.
This is coming after two other parliamentary inquiries also collapsed: one into the missing of trucks of maize for the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) and another into the K750 million Affordable Input Programme fertiliser deal involving a UK butchery, Barkaat Foods
So who and what is making parliamentary inquiries fail?
Inquiry ‘politically stopped’
Chairperson of one committee who spoke to us on condition of anonymity and is privy to the collapse of the Botomani inquiry said political capture of Parliament is sabotaging these investigations.
“I will take you back to 2017. We had a successful inquiry into the maize scandal. That inquiry produced results to the extent that arrests were made afterwards. Former agriculture minister, George Chaponda, businesswoman Grace Mijiga and businessman Rashid Tayub were arrested.
“That time the House leadership was with MCP while DPP was running government. Now, the House’s leadership is with MCP and the same party is also running government. So what would you expect?
“The leadership in the House is making sure that issues are not exposed because most of the enquiries, if they were to be concluded, would have exposed serious issues in this government,” the chairperson said.
About the just scuppered East Bridge inquiry, a member of the committee told us that the probe was actually “politically stopped”.
“How do you conclude that no money exchanged hands when you haven’t done any investigation?
“You [this reporter] have to request for minutes of our two-hour meeting that day the inquiry was halted; then you will understand what happened,” said the member.
‘No inquiry will ever work’
Sameer Suleman, who was co-chairperson of the joint committee that started the inquiry into NFRA maize missing trucks and Barkaat Foods fertiliser scandal, said the investigations died “a political death.”
He told Malawians to forget about any inquiry in this Parliament.
“No any inquiry will ever work in that Parliament because the House has been captured,” he said.
According to Suleman, his committee has been summoning some officers under the Executive but they have been refusing to appear.
“These officers are powerful. They are summoned and they refuse to appear before the committee and no any action is taken on them. They are never subpoenaed. What do you expect from such people? Can they have any respect for Parliament?
“So if you ask me about Parliament being independent, I would say Parliament is no longer independent, it has been captured,” Suleman said.
In the current set up, Speaker of Parliament, Catherine Gotani Hara, is also deputy secretary general of MCP; the first deputy speaker of Parliament is Madalitso Kazombo who is MCP Member of Parliament and the second deputy speaker is Aisha Adams, UDF MP.
It is the Speaker who is supposed to summon officials which Parliamentary inquiries want to appear before it for questioning.
A senior ranking official at Parliament also blamed the lack of progress on inquires on weak opposition.
“When MCP was in opposition, the inquiries used to work but now things are not working because the opposition is weak,” said the source.
‘Culture of collusion’
Michael Kaiyatsa, Executive Director for Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), said a culture of collusion is sabotaging the inquiries, which he said is a disservice to the public.
“According to the Constitution, parliamentary committees are supposed to work on behalf of Malawians solely to serve and protect their interests. Sadly, this no longer appears to be the case.
“When you look at how previous inquiries have been done, one is tempted to think that members of such committees are there not to serve the public interest, but their own political interests, which is sad. We may not
