DPP given 7 days to refund public money

Some civil society organisations (CSOs) have given the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) seven days to refund all the money it received from parastatals and city councils during its fundraising dinner called Blue Night on July 29 2017 or face legal action.

The CSOs—Youth and Society (YAS), Centre for the Development of People (Cedep), Livingstonia Synod Church and Society Programme, Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) and Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC)—have written the DPP through lawyer Wesley Mwafulirwa in Mzuzu.

Besides refunding the money, the CSOs also demand that the ruling party should furnish the public with a list of all public/statutory corporations that made the donations and amounts donated.

They argue that DPP’s conduct amounts to misuse and abuse of public resources contrary to Malawi’s legal framework and that, as a ruling party, it owes Malawians a duty to inform them how it uses public resources.

Reads the letter in part: “The law requires that every public expenditure be authorised by a necessary Appropriation Act unless it is a statutory expenditure [see Section 178 of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi and Section 23 of the Public Finance Management Act].

“As for expenditures by statutory corporations, Section 76 of the Public Finance Management Act provides that funds held by statutory bodies must only be applied for the purposes specified in the relevant empowering Acts.”

Further, the CSOs argue that these resources belong to the public and that the public has the right to information of how State resources are being used and that they have the constitutional right to hold public officers to account.

They have also reminded the DPP of the resources’ constraints that most institutions are going through, and that for so long, the public has been forced to accept mediocre service delivery because of lack of sufficient resources.

They further cite Article 10 of the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption which echoes the need for political parties to be transparent with their funding. Malawi ratified the Convention in 2007.

“It is against this background that we write your office demanding the following: that your office should furnish the public, through our clients, a list of all the public/statutory corporations that made the donations towards the said Blue Night and the list should include the amounts donated.”

The CSOs have warned that failure to refund the money in seven days, they will start legal proceedings against DPP and that some of the statutory corporations/public bodies may be added as parties to the case.

However, DPP secretary general Greselder Jeffrey said she was yet to receive the letter. She said the best people to comment on the matter would be chairperson of the fundraising committee for the Lilongwe Blue Night, Hetherwick Ntaba or DPP publicity secretary Francis Kasaila.

When contacted, Ntaba also said he had not seen the letter, and that once he gets it, he would discuss with Jeffrey and Kasaila on the same.

Early this week, the Malawi Law Society (MLS) joined the condemnation of donations to the governing DPP by State enterprises and demanded a refund to the agencies.

But Jeffrey has described the calls by MLS and other CSOs as “zachamba [nonsense]” and a waste of time.