Committee decries broken assets declaration system
Parliamentary Monitoring Committee has deplored lack of proper working relationship between State law enforcement agencies and the Directorate of Public Officers Declaration as it is derailing effective implementation of the assets declaration law.
In an interview on arrival from South Africa where she
led a team from the directorate and United Nations Development Programme Malawi Country Office on a study tour of implementation of assets declaration law, Committee chairperson Joyce Chitsulo observed that the current situation of uncoordinated work where only the directorate handles assets declaration issues was also frustrating the fight against corruption.
She said if the country was serious in fighting corruption, adoption of the lessons and experiences learnt from South Africa would be an effective approach in dealing with the vice among the listed public servants as well as politicians.
Chitsulo said key lessons from the study tour include inter-agency working relations, lifestyle audit, data sharing, electronic assets declaration and following up with various State institutions to assess compliance among the listed public officers.
She said: “These are crucial issues. In South Africa, they have a very advanced network of all State agencies concerned with assets declarations. They share data through electronic system and analyse the declarations at any point.
“This is different from our situation where the directorate works in isolation yet we have several law enforcement agencies such as the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Auditor General, Ombusdman, the Independent Complaints Commission, Financial Intelligence Authority, among others.”
Chitsulo, who is also chairperson of Public Appointments Committee of Parliament and Mwanza West legislator, said they will soon devise ways they can engage all the relevant agencies.
Commenting on the observations, National Anti-Corruption Alliance chairperson Moses Mkandawire said the study tour was worth understanding as no institution can fight or prevent corruption on their own,” he said.
Mkandawire said it was also critical that punitive sanctions, including fines, suspension, dismissal and naming and shaming of non-compliant listed officers be applied as one way of ensuring effective implementation of the law.
He said: “The study visit was critical in that all these issues were learned and what requires is implementation. There is need for political-wil to successfully implement them.”
The sentiments come at a time assets directorate has conceded struggling to enforce full compliance of the assets declaration law due to lack of enforcement authority. Currently, the directorate can only recommend for dismissal of non-complying public officers, but cannot push the institutions to enforce the same.
