Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament is today set to present its report into the purchase of Amaryllis Hotel by the Public Service Trust Pension Fund amid concerns from some sections, including the Executive.
The Executive arm of government and some civil society organisations (CSOs) have since escalated the matter to Speaker of the National Assembly Sameer Suleman.
They query the completeness of the report without interviewing some key stakeholders-former Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Colleen Zamba and the seller, Yusuf Investment Limited.
But standing on a point of order in Parliament yesterday, Lilongwe Phirilanjuzi legislator Peter Dimba (Malawi Congress Party-MCP) queried government’s apparent resistance to tabling of the report.
“We are having resistance in this House on the tabling of the inquiry report by PAC regarding the same Amaryllis Hotel,” he said.
MCP chief whip Moses Kunkuyu also argued that the report was on the order paper, an outline of business discussed in Parliament, not as a mere notice of upcoming business but as an agenda on a particular date ready to be discussed.
Yesterday morning, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Victor Musowa said the Executive, Human Rights Defenders Coalition, and Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (Cdedi) already raised the matter with the speaker and the matter was being looked into.
In the afternoon, he ruled that PAC should continue with the inquiry to get input from “key” witnesses before submitting the report.
But University of Malawi governance expert Gift Sambo said the Executive is an interested party on multiple dimensions, including having incentive to protect public resources but also enhance its reputation as a responsible government.
He said: “Most of the actors mentioned in this case are part of the executive and the governing party in particular. It is for this reason that government finds itself in an awkward position.
“The idea of fairness and justice is not compatible with scenarios of information asymmetry. So the contributions from the actors in question will be critical in helping PAC to come up with an informed determination that reflects justice and fairness.”
On his part, rights and governance activist Undule Mwakasungula said while the absence of key witnesses could affect the perceived completeness and credibility of the report, the arrest warrants for Zamba complicate matters.
Private practice lawyer Bright Theu also took to Facebook, arguing that government is in protectionist gear.
“It’s a PAC chairman’s report. A report that was meticulously considered by PAC, adopted after a proposal supported by both members of the party in government.
“Government is in protectionist gear, with hopes to foil the report altogether to save its own officers,” he argued.
On Monday, Minister of Information and Communications Technology Shadric Namalomba said failure to interview other people risks negatively skewing the results of the investigation, insisting that government’s position is that no crucial witness is left unsummoned.
But PAC chairperson Steve Malondera said he will proceed to present the report today, Wednesday, adding that “the House may reject the report or adopt the report”.
