A President who governs by vengeance

Without consulting the victims, you remove chief executive officers from statutory corporations or other government agencies; dispatch them to a ministry or department where they are given obscure jobs under the guise of redeployment and presidential prerogative and you think that is not firing?

President Peter Mutharika can do better than hide his not-so thoughtful ploy in semantics as if we are too daft to discern the on-going foe-purging shenanigans.

I am sure some of our lawyer friends would construe this to be constructive dismissal because these people had contracts that stipulated exactly where they will be working, what they will be doing and for how long—meaning that any abrupt changes to these constitute a breach of the agreement.

And the explanation for the cleansings—from Mutharika himself all the way to the institutions which have accepted to be pawns in a political game—are hollow to say the least.

Take the movement of Agnes Katsonga Phiri and Henry Ngutwa from the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) to the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (Mitc) and the Ministry of Justice respectively.

MRA’s explanation for the duo’s removal begs a lot of questions. This is what MRA said when asked about the duo’s situation last Saturday:

“Government is establishing a one-stop investment centre under Malawi Investment and Trade Centre. This investment centre is designed to give potential investors all answers and assistance on various matters such as acquisition of land, permits and customs and tax incentives. To this one stop investment centre, MRA decided to second a senior officer who is experienced in tax and customs matters, who could meet and assist investors and offer advice on the spot. Mrs. Katsonga Phiri has, therefore, been seconded to Mitc. She has a lot of experience in Sadc, Comesa, World Trade and World Customs; hence, her secondment. She has not been fired. You can confirm with her. In the case of Mr. Henry Ngutwa, who was director of tax investigations, he has been seconded to the Ministry of Justice. As a tax lawyer, he is supposed to work hand-in-hand with the Justice Ministry in drafting international tax treaties such as those on double taxation agreements. He is also going to be instrumental in drafting a new Tax Administration Act and a review of the taxation and customs laws [whose] reviews are designed to modernise tax administration. This includes drafting of new fiscal regimes for the mining sector. Again, he has not been fired, but has been seconded and continues to enjoy his full benefits. The secondment is designed to fast track the legal reviews that improve tax administration and is part of the MRA reforms announced recently.”

The key word here is that MRA “decided” to second. This is very troubling. Who initiated these secondments? Did the Ministry of Justice and Mitc write MRA that they had competency gaps and, therefore, needed specialised people to fill those capacity holes? If so, where is the proof? Does MRA have the legal mandate to unilaterally send officers to other government agencies and departments to work there? If so, where does it derive such a mandate? By the way, Mitc has been around for some years now, why would they suddenly need Katsonga Phiri’s expertise today?

Most interestingly, while MRA talks about secondment, the President says the officers are being “redeployed.” When did we decide to merge parastatals and the civil service proper?

This “redeployment” sounds very illegal even to a layperson like me for the reasons I explained earlier: these people had contracts that governed their recruitment at the parastatals. Transferring them willy-nilly to other jobs in the public service is a fundamental breach of contract that will cost taxpayers billions of kwachas. Furthermore, there are some principal secretaries who have been replaced, but several weeks down the line, they have no idea where their next destination is—what is that? Then there is this business of hiring top dogs into ministries and parastatals without such people undergoing any interviews. Where is the meritocracy candidate Mutharika promised?

President Mutharika is also abusing his presidential powers—which as a candidate he vowed to sharply trim—in appointing and firing parastatal heads when that should be the responsibility of relevant Cabinet ministers on recommendations from the statutory corporation’s board. This move is not only wrong it also degrades the role of boards and their authority.

How will a parastatal chief—appointed by the President—listen to strategic advice from an apparently toothless board? This is not how we run a country.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Peter Mutharika presidency is being run by immature cowboys with little or no self-control on the exercise of power.

They are so drunk with power that they think they can punish anyone who at one time or the other disagreed with them.

It is also evident that the President himself is still bitter with anyone who was involved in his treason case or was not on his side when he was roughing up his way to his discredited election.

The man is on a vengeance mission and does not care if he tears down the country while at it.

It is a mission only cowards embark on after they have been thrust with unchallenged power because they know that in a fair fight they could never win.

This is not the leadership we need.