Court stops sale of MRA houses

Some employees of Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) yesterday obtained a court order to stop the public tax collector from proceeding with plans to sale institutional houses they are occupying.

MRA director of corporate affairs Steven Kapoloma yesterday confirmed that the institution was served with a court injunction that High Court Judge Charles Mkandawire granted to representatives of the employees workers union.

He said: “Yes, we have received and complied with the injunction.”

In their claim, the employees said MRA through a letter dated February 26 2020 informed its 35 employees staying in institutional houses in the cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu that it intended to sell 27 institutional houses.

The letter asked the employees to allow people seeking to buy the houses to view them.

But the employees argued that as interested parties they were not consulted and that no reasons were furnished to them on why the decision was undertaken.

The workers union claimed that it learnt about the sale through the media; hence, confronted MRA management for an explanation.

“We asked management that before they could proceed with the intended sale, they had to consult the occupants, as well as eligible occupants, of the said houses, with a view to finding a solution to the problem,” said a member of the workers’ union.

Earlier this year, the Anti-Corruption Bureau also issued a freeze order that stopped MRA from recruiting customs officers following a complaint of favouritism in the recruitment process.