OPC snores away jobs

Traits of indecision continue to thrive in the Tonse Alliance administration with the Ministry of Justice operating without a Solicitor General and Secretary for Justice for three months now.

The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) moved the former office-holder Reyneck Matemba last December to Ministry of Lands as Principal Secretary, exactly a year after his appointment.

He was one of 15 principal secretaries (PSs) the OPC transferred within ministries to re-energise the civil service in line with the current administration’s mandate, as justified by government spokesperson Gospel Kazako.

But three months down the line, government is yet to appoint a Solicitor General and Secretary for Justice, a move some public administration and governance experts believe points to indecision of the appointing authority.

Government’s delay to appoint a new Solicitor General has left the former Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) czar juggling certain tasks at his former office and his current one.

Matemba’s most recent engagement was last weekend, during the Malawi Law Society (MLS) Annual General Meeting and Conference where he was throughout recognised as Solicitor General and he presented a report of the disciplinary committee of the society, which he chaired as Solicitor General. He, however, stated that that was his last time chairing the committee.

Among other roles, the Solicitor General supervises and monitors the conduct of civil litigation, draft legislation, negotiates loan agreements and other legal instruments for and on behalf of government.

When contacted on Tuesday to shed more light on his doubling of roles, Matemba referred Weekend Nation to Kazako and Ministry of Justice spokesperson Pirirani Masanjala.

Masanjala confirmed government was yet to replace Matemba and who he said was finalising certain tasks at the ministry, but further referred Weekend Nation to OPC.

On his part, Kazako, while seemingly avoiding to justify the development, said the “law doesn’t dictate or demand a specific duration when an officer can be replaced”.

“That notwithstanding, all efforts are being made to ensure proper replacements of officers in vacant positions, but this should not compromise quality and relevance,” he said.

A senior officer at the Ministry of Justice corroborated Masanjala’s sentiments that Matemba was still being engaged to finalise certain work he started before his redeployment to Lands.

She said: “After his redeployment, Matemba was purposely requested to finalise some work such as the Electoral Reforms Bills and the land-related Bills which he drafted.

“When these Bills go to Cabinet he is still engaged time and again by virtue of being the author to explain or clarify certain sticky issues. But still, that doesn’t stop the appointing authority from filling the position.”

At Ministry of Lands, Matemba replaced Bernard Sande who was moved to Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the same capacity to replace Luckie Sikwese. Sikwese was redeployed to the Office of the Vice-President (OVP) also as PS.

Besides the Solicitor General and Secretary for Justice, OPC has also taken long to fill certain posts such as the Auditor General, which has remained vacant for more than four years and director general of the Financial Intelligence Authority, which has been vacant for two years.

Last year, President Lazarus Chakwera also came under fire when he took months to replace four members of his maiden Cabinet who had either been fired or died.

Chakwera took over a year to replace Minister of Transport and Public Works Sidik Mia, who was also vice-president for Malawi Congress Party and Lingson Belekanyama, who was Local Government Minister. They both died of Covid-19 on January 12 2021.

The other two were Labour Minister Ken Kandodo, who was fired in April 2021 for alleged misuse of Covid-19 funds and Energy Minister Newton Kambala, who was dismissed in August 2021 for allegedly being involved in fuel deals.

Governance and policy analyst Mavuto Bamusi said allowing Matemba to continue undertaking certain tasks at the ministry was a recipe for chaos as the situation compromises institutional governance.

He observed that the development was also a fertile ground for conflict of interest since the two ministries “are functionally different.”

Bamusi said: “Such delays do not resonate well with ongoing public sector reforms. OPC appears so indecisive, and lacking the leadership which entails making timely decisions.”

The former presidential advisor, said Matemba’s dual responsibilities may exert pressure on him, resulting in his effectiveness being compromised as he cannot be expected to efficiently work with divided attention to issues from the two ministries.

“OPC is digging its own grave with such unjustified dilly-dallying and will lead to institutional anarchy at Capital Hill,” warned Bamusi.

University of Malawi public administration and governance expert Mustafa Hussein agreed with Bamusi, arguing that OPC’s indecision was creating a bad image that the political system cannot trust other individuals to fill the position.

“The foregoing demonstrates that the appointing authority does not see capable people either within the ministry or elsewhere to replace Matemba… replacement can even take one day, and not three months.

“Running a ministry is quite demanding and leaving it without a controlling officer for three months is disastrous and may bring in issues of inefficiencies,” he said. 

The Church and Society for the CCAP Livingstonia Synod and Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), which are governance and democracy watchdogs, also described the failure to make timely appointments as a sign of “inefficiency”.

“Transferring a person without replacement, for me, signifies negligence of duty and also shows levels of incompetence on the part of appointing authority. The time Matemba was being redeployed they needed to have a replacement at that material time,” said Moses Mkandawire, director of the Church and Society programme of the CCAP Livingstonia Synod.

He added: “We don’t want any of these crucial offices to be suffocated unless they don’t understand the demands of the offices of Solicitor General or Secretary for Justice … you can’t allow these offices, not even for a week, to remain vacant.”

On his part, CCJP national coordinator Boniface Chibwana said the development was a sign that the appointing authority does not conduct analysis of the changes before effecting.

“This just shows they do implement these transfers without analysing in terms of people being shuffled. The appointing authority needs to do some soul-searching because those are not common offices to remain vacant for that long,” he said.

Early this month, the country’s Catholic Bishops also expressed concern over Chakwera’s indecisiveness on filling crucial positions and in the fight against corruption.

In their pastoral letter signed by seven bishops under the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), the men of God observed that decision-making was “too slow at the highest level of government” despite the President having all the necessary legal powers, authority and information.