PAC board adopts conference resolutions

The Public Affairs Committee (PAC) board of governance has  adopted all recommendations made by delegates to the 5+1 All-Inclusive Stakeholders Conference, saying they were genuine and require actions to resolve them.

The board, which includes the committee’s five mother bodies, also said it fully supports demonstrations by the civil society organisations (CSOs) and interest groups should there be no action on the recommendations as that is provided by the law.

In a communiqué issued at the end of their board meeting held in Blantyre, the quasi-religious body institution, however, says demonstrations should be a last resort once all remedies for yielding results have been exhausted.

The board also adopted a number of resolutions, including its willingness to dialogue with government “as soon as possible”.

“The timeframes on the recommendations are ‘conference timeframes’ as set by the delegates. PAC and government may review them.

“PAC notes that these timeframes demonstrated the need for urgency in tackling national issues,” reads part of the communiqué signed by PAC chairperson the Very Reverend Felix Chingota and his publicity secretary Father Peter Mulomole.

During the two-day conference held in Blantyre under the theme The State of Governance and Public Trust: Reclaiming Our Destiny, the delegates, among others, recommended to government to open Chancellor College within 14 days, expeditiously pursue all Cashgate matters, establish the Public Appointments Commission and that the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) must be reporting to the Minister of Justice alone and not three entities as is the current situation.

The five mother bodies are the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM), Malawi Council of Churches (MCC), Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM) and Quadria Muslim Association of Malawi (QMAM).

In the communiqué, PAC also states that the state of governance and public trust are not satisfactory at the moment.

“Lack of enforcement on corruption incidents and poor state of governance has eroded the trust bestowed upon the state. If left unchecked, indeed demonstrations or civil disobedience could occur,” reads the communiqué.

But reacting to the call, special adviser to President Peter Mutharika on civil society organisations (CSOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Mavuto Bamusi, said  government would respond to the call and PAC’s position in due course once it analyses the content of the communiqué.

The board says it has observed that most recommendations still fit into the previous resolutions demonstrating their importance in the current state of affairs. n