Accept we have a problem—Malewezi

As revelations regarding the Capital Hill cash-gate continue to unravel like a Hollywood movie, generating the chaos of finger-pointing and blame game, I talk to former vice-president Dr Justin Malewezi to get his views on the cash-gate.

Q: Tell me, what was your immediate reaction as news of public looting started to unfold?

A:

I was shocked and, to be honest, sad. The amounts mentioned are so huge. Being taxpayers’ money, this is money meant for specific development activities. Even if you look at the nature of the occurrence, you find that it is so intricate and it must have been planned. It is quite sophisticated. How can people be so greedy and so thoughtless about others?

Q: You were a civil servant during the Kamuzu era. You became a minister of Civil Service while serving as vice-president during the Bakili Muluzi era. In all these encounters, your name barely features in corrupt cases. How did you manage to stay clean?

A:

I don’t know. I just do my job. You are given a job, and you do it as honestly as you can. I think I was brought up that way.

The civil service has comprehensive rules of operation in form of rules and regulations. Even on financial issues. They are clearly laid out in books and circulars. As a public servant, as the name suggests, I followed them.

This is why I think if our civil servants managed to follow these rules, we should not have been talking about the looting underway. Civil servants must serve people. Being a channel of policy makers in implementation of government programmes, they need to be honest and be people of high integrity.

Q: How do you relate your experience as a civil servant, the civil service you headed as a vice-president, to the one we have today?

A:

There are huge differences. The civil service I worked in was marked by three things: respect for hierarchy, merit and teamwork. On hierarchy, during our time, there was so much respect for the hierarchical order in the system. You knew the place you occupied and you worked very hard to go up the ladder. To mean, you knew what you were supposed to do. Beyond that, there was merit. It was a very important aspect of the civil service during our time. And again, there was a good working relation that culminated into teamwork. You had security officers working well, coordinating with all the managers from the lower through the middle to the upper [levels]. The combination of these factors brought hard work, discipline and efficiency. And again, being in a one-party State, it meant there was only a single master to serve.

After democratisation, however, things went through a dramatic change. Politicisation of the civil service emerged. The new government looked at the civil service as a place where some elements not supportive of their parties could be found. There was this fear that maybe some in the civil service were still loyal to the previous regimes and also other parties. As a result, various appointments and recruitment started to follow this line of thought.

Further, certain people could join the civil service at a higher position. This defied the hierarchy which defined the Kamuzu’s era. Dissatisfaction among other civil servants began to emerge, eventually, killing the spirit of teamwork.

Not only that. Even the issue of contracts to some civil servants also changed the face of civil service. Those on contracts had hefty salaries and better working conditions than those who were not. This completely killed teamwork among the workers.

Q: In searching a way forward, how do you assess the capacity of institutions entrusted with investigating and prosecuting those alleged in looting of public resources?

A:

I hope you are talking about, among others, institutions like the police, the Finance Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). Just like any other organisation, what matters is the quality of the people you hire, the equipment you give them and also the constant training they have. I strongly believe that we have the people. What we need is the incentives and the tools. We also, as a nation, need commitment, patriotism and a high sense of integrity among the people given the responsibility.

Q: Some donors, appalled by the looting, have started withholding aid. Are they justified?

A:

The decision is theirs. But let me ask you: If you give me money to buy food and then you find out that I used it to buy beer, would you be happy with me? You would not. The donors gave us money to buy drugs in the hospitals, build schools and buy teaching and learning materials. Do you think they can be happy to note that we are using the money to build personal mansions? They should be concerned. We should not expect business as usual from them. Unless we [show] them that we are cleaning up the mess, they won’t be easy on us.

Q: The civil society and the new Justice Minister have said declaration of assets should be enforced and extended to ministers, PSs and senior public officers. Can declaration of assets help curb the abuse of public funds?

A:

I think it is an important tool in fighting corruption. People get power on trust. And if you are put on trust, you need to be accountable and transparent to the governed. As such, leaders need to declare their assets. I understand the current law has some weaknesses. Among others, the law hardly talks about the frequency over how a leader can declare assets. It also does not talk about what happens when you leave office and also the monitoring process of wealth accumulation. I think these observations should be polished up.

Q: What would you propose to be put in place as a long-lasting solution to looting of public resources?

A:

In the first place, we need a post-mortem over the issue to understand it in detail. Why did it take long to be detected? How was it done? Those behind it, what power did they have? Otherwise, we just cannot go into another system without a proper analysis of the old one. More so, we also need to have leaders that really want to serve, are of high integrity, are honest, committed and not greedy.

Q: Any other words?

A: I think those looking into this issue should continue. We should support them and give them time to do a good job. I urge government to give them enough financial support. If we need external support, let’s not shy away.

As Malawians, we need to accept that we have a problem. As such, we need to come together to create a better world for our children. Our unity of purpose should not be destroyed. Again, this saga should not disturb our patriotism to the country.

Beyond that, the law should take its course. Not only on small people. Even the so-called big fish should be tackled.