Former Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) chief executive officer William Liabunya has been reappointed to lead the parastatal two years after the expiry of his contract.
Liabunya, who left the parastatal towards the end of 2023, confirmed yesterday that government has re-hired him and that he has already reported for work.
In a telephone interview yesterday, he said he is excited to be back at the institution. He said he was reappointed to the position last Thursday.
happy. I Nation
Said Liabunya: “I feel happy, having first been acquitted [in a court case] and then getting re-appointed.”
The Blantyre Magistrate’s Court last week acquitted Liabunya in a case in which he was accused, alongside two others, of stealing K3.4 billion, money laundering and abuse of office.
The other two are former Egenco company secretary Videlia Mluwira and director of finance Orphan Chisasa.
They were all acquitted on the basis that the State lacked evidence to prove they had a case to answer.
The case emanates from an investigative forensic audit the previous government sanctioned relating to how Egenco management handled the effects of Cyclones Gombe and Ana that destroyed machinery at Kapichira Hydro Power Station which subsequently led to persistent blackouts.
They were later accused of mismanaging funds relating to power generation and infrastructure initiatives.
But Liabunya yesterday said he was vindicated by the outcome and his comeback gives him an opportunity to continue from where he left.
At the time Liabunya left Egenco, he and Mluwira were at one point sent on forced leave in October 2023pending the forensic investigative audit.
The two were, however, saved by an Industrial Relations Court (IRC) injunction that blocked the move, which was sustained until Liabunya left the institution in December that same year.
In Liabunya’s absence, Egenco management appointed the then director of operations Maxon Chitawo in his place, but was later permanently hired.
But the new Democratic Progressive Party administration has now seconded Chitawo to Mzuzu University where he will be a lecturer.
Liabunya and Mluwira were at first sent on the forced leave five months after former president Lazarus Chakwera on May 17 2023 accused Egenco management of lack of urgency when handling the restoration of Kapichira Hydro Power Station, which took a year and three months to complete.
Chakwera accused Egenco management of being indecisive when he presided over the opening of the 33rd Malawi International Trade Fair and inauguration of the Malawi Bureau of Standards laboratory and office complex.
