Legislators have turned their parliamentary oversight mandate into a money-minting scheme that is bleeding cash-strapped ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), Weekend Nation can reveal.
Our investigation, which included interviews and analysis of expenditure reports accessed under the Access to Information Act, reveals how the legislators cash in through visits to and engagements with MDAs designed to rake in allowances that the Comptroller of Statutory Corporations says are unbudgeted for, at least for parastatals.
Our findings show that Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) spent at least K68 million in 2023 alone on MPs’ allowances.
Internal communications we have reviewed show that the Comptroller of Statutory Corporations raised a concern, but to no avail.
Part of the scheme, according to our well-placed sources, sees different committees visiting the same agencies on different days, citing difference in mandate or legislators claiming allowances for days they did not engage in any noticeable activity.
Our analysis also shows that some oversight meetings with MDAs are held outside Lilongwe even when the Parliament Building has enough space for that.
While MDAs are feeling the pinch, controlling officers and the Office of President and Cabinet (OPC) seem helpless as members of Parliament allegedly use blackmail tactics, including threats, to punish adamant officers or budget cuts to their institutions, multiple MDA officials said in separate interviews.
All this is happening in the face of legislators’ better conditions of service, which provide for monthly allocation of fuel, duty-free purchase of a motor vehicle, motor vehicle loans and a claim for fuel for every official undertaking.
While the office of the Secretary to President and Cabinet (SPC) has not responded to our enquiry, Comptroller of Statutory Corporations Peter Simbani said there is a standing order to all State-owned enterprises (SoEs) to seek approval from the SPC before hosting parliamentary committees.
Said Simbani: “Now, since most of these requests from parliamentary committees are unplanned and unbudgeted for, such programmes tend to affect the budget out-turns for SoEs as they end up missing the financial targets which they agreed with Treasury through the letter of expectation.”
MDAs pay as they wish
Financial reports we have analysed from different MDAs show that there is no uniform rate on allowances given to members of Parliament (MPs) even when their conditions of service are clear on what they are entitled to.
For example, the National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC), between March and August last year spent at least K219 million in allowances and fuel for parliamentary committees’ engagements.
While MPs get fuel refunds from the public entities, Parliament usually provides them a bus for use, according to Parliament’s designated information officer Sophie Dambe.
She said: “MDAs organise visits. Parliament, normally, just provides a bus and the stakeholder puts in fuel”.
In August last year, under the sponsorship of NLGFC, the Parliamentary Committee on Governance and Quality Assurance and Public Reforms had a two-day tour of rural areas in Kasungu and Mzimba.
A financial report from NLGFC shows that each MP got K20 000 daily sitting allowance for four days, translating to K80 000 and K100 000 subsistence allowance per day, totalling K480 000. But sources, who were part of this engagement, indicated that what was planned to be a four-day event only lasted two days.
Fuel was calculated based on distance to the constituency and most members received more than K500 000 worth of fuel. The exercise cost NLGFC K83.2 million, the financial report shows.
The same NLFC organised a two-day meeting with the Budget and Finance Committee in December 2023 in Salima and paid different rates.
Each member received K130 000 per day for three days, translating to K10.5 million for 27 MPs. Fuel had a uniform rate at K455 000, translating to a K12.2 million and the whole exercise cost NLGFC K36 million.
Last year, alone, NLGFC funded not less than 10 such visits to different sites, including Balaka, Ntchisi and Mchinji where MPs had gone to appreciate implementation of social cash transfer programmes and Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) funded projects.
The Malawi Rural Electrification Project (Marep), in August last year, paid K2.1 million to each member of the Government Assurance and Public Sector Reforms Committee for a tour of projects in Dedza, Mangochi and Mulanje—an exercise that lasted for two days but, on paper, four days were indicated, according to a source.
MPs used their own vehicles, which Marep fuelled, but proceeded to give them fuel refunds. Marep, without reason, could not grant us access to information, but our sources say it is another cash-cow for parliamentary committees.
Parastatals are easy targets
On July 29 2024, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, which is supposed to ensure prudent use of public funds, appreciate construction work.
For this tour, which lasted less than a day, the Roads Fund Administration (RFA)—an institution which is financially struggling as the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority has not been remitting fuel levy—spent K14 million in travel expenses and daily subsistence allowances.
In response to our request for information, RFA could not provide a breakdown of this cost, arguing that it was waiting for information from Parliament as our request involved third parties.
Financial records we accessed from Egenco show that on January 17 2024, the power generator paid K712 120 to each of the 19 members of the Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Corporations for a day-long meeting in Salima.
A week later, on January 23 2024, Egenco hosted the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Climate Change to visit Kapichira.
Each of the committee’s 19 members received K1 571 689.60 in allowances, leaving Egenco with an expenditure of K32 million, which included two staff members from Parliament.
Escom did not provide a comprehensive breakdown of the allowances paid to MPs, but said that between 2021 and 2024, the expenditure on parliamentary visits was more than K145 million.
In 2023, the power utility spent about K68 million, and K27 million last year, as of October when we received the information.
Controlling officer blackmailed
A controlling officer from one of the ministries confided in us that the demand for these visits come with threats.
“For purposes of funding, a controlling officer would bow down to this pressure. But there are also times they threaten to produce a damning report that puts you in bad light. In the interest of personal survival, many bow down to the pressure of hosting MPs at a huge cost,” said the source.
Simbani said these visits are unbudgeted for and, therefore, cause a huge strain on parastatals’ budgets.
He said the expectation is that all SoEs must seek approval before hosting MPs, especially where there is financial implication.
The 2019 Conditions of Service of Parliament show that an MP is entitled to a motor vehicle mileage claim at the rate of 60 percent of prevailing pump price per kilometre to enable them travel to an official business undertaking.
A member is also entitled to motor vehicle mileage claim at the rate of 60 percent of prevailing fuel price “to attend plenary sessions and committee meetings of the National Assembly”. Besides this, MPs get 500 litres of fuel every month for official duties.
The National Assembly budget, which has been ring-fenced, also factors in costs such as committee meetings and engagements.
Dambe could not grant our request to access financial reports on how much Parliament spent on the highlighted engagements for these parliamentary committees, and on whether MPs drew allowances from Parliament.
Public Accounts Committee chairperson Mark Botomani said Parliament secretariat was better placed to comment on this matter.
