In recent years, Parliament has instituted numerous inquiries to address critical issues and hold those in power to account.
However, a disturbing trend has emerged as some inquiries have led nowhere while conclusions of others have been left hanging, and recommendations are gathering dust.
Among inquests conducted over the past three years include the one into misprocurement and mismanagement of public resources in the K3 billion Affordable Inputs Programme procurement and the K750 million advance payment to a UK butchery to supply fertiliser.
Another inquiry into the losss of K60 billion by individuals and institutions at Alliance Capital involved a joint committee of the Public Accounts, Legal Affairs, and Trade and Industry.
Other investigations include the case of 13 missing trucks of maize from the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) and the botched fuel procurement deal at the National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma).
In an interview this week, Mzimba North Constituency legislator Yeremia Chihana described Parliament as a “hopeless institution”.
According to him, the committees responsible for the inquiries lack legal status and mandate, rendering their efforts ineffective.
Said Chihana: “There is no proper office to manage or monitor recommendations; it is just an exercise in futility.”
He also pointed out that the Legal Affairs Committee is currently chaired by Peter Dimba, a Malawi Congress Party legislator, arguing that this compromises the committee’s effectiveness due to political arrangements.
Public Appointments Committee chairperson Joyce Chitsulo echoed Chihana’s sentiments, saying committees face numerous challenges, in particular when summoned officers fail to appear.
“We are powerless and must write to the Speaker to sub-poena the officers, and the process is further complicated as the Speaker also has to seek legal opinions,” she said.
According to Chitsulo, the solution lies in amending the Standing Orders, to empower the parliamentary committees.
She also cited the inquiry into the procurement of fuel without following procedures, where former Nocma deputy chief executive officer Helen Buluma implicated some senior officials in the deals.
Chitsulo said: “We referred that matter to the Anti-Corruption Bureau because we realised that as a committee, we don’t have the powers to interrogate further, but the evidence was available and so was the witness.”
In a separate interview on Wednesday, outspoken Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture chairperson Sameer Suleman said the office of the Speaker sometimes uses funding constraints as a convenient excuse for not concluding inquiries.
He said: “It is just a waste of taxpayers’ money to start an inquiry and not see its logical conclusion. We know that there is also politics at play, especially when the people involved are government officials or those aligned with the ruling party.”
On his part, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairperson Mark Botomani decried the tendency not to conclude some inquiries, saying it defeats the whole purpose of instituting them.
“My experience on this issue is that Parliament sets up these inquiries before putting appropriate structures in place, including budgets. We mostly act on impulse as a result of external pressures of the moment,” he said.
Commenting on the issue, Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira expressed disappointment, saying parliamentary inquiries have been a waste of taxpayers’ money.
Said Kambwandira: “Sadly, Malawians seem to be comfortable with the status quo. They must rise up and start demanding accountability because it is their taxes at stake.”
Inquiries by portfolio committees or joint committees are provided for in Standing Orders as a means of gathering information or evidence in the exercise of Parliament’s constitutional mandate of oversight.
