Opposition MPs reject Aviation Bill

Opposition members of Parliament (MPs) yesterday rejected a Loan Authorisation Bill that sought to allow government borrow funds from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to upgrade aviation safety and security equipment at Kamuzu and Chileka airports.
The MPs said the bill lacked sufficient information.
Speaking on behalf of Malawi Congress Party (MCP), Mzimba Solola MP Jacob Hara said the Bill lacked up-to-date information on the aviation industry.

Said Hara: “The aeronautical fixed telecommunication network which this Bill seeks to authorise government to borrow to buy is a piece of ageing technology which has been around since 1930. It is based on telex protocols which are limited with regards to messaging functionality and types of information. Our colleagues are replacing these with the new kid on the block.”
Making his statement amid applause from the opposition, Hara said government should explain why is it that after Japanese International Cooperating Agency (Jica) gave Kamuzu International Airport a solar field that generates power into the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) grid, the airport is still being charged K8 million every month when it only consumes half the power it generates and supplies the excess to Escom.
Said Hara: “Then there is completion of a taxiway lighting, MCP would like to inform this government that there is no such a thing as completion of a taxiway lighting at KIA. This project was completed three or four years ago under this same DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] government and was funded by Badea and Cofid, time for duplication of projects in order to steal is over.”
In his contribution, Chitipa South MP Werani Chilenga (People’s Party-PP) observed that airports such as Mzuzu need further upgrades.
The opposition’s contribution prompted Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe, who had earlier asked the House to be cooperative and pass the Bill ahead of the visit to Malawi today by EIB vice-president Pim van Ballekom, to ask the House to send the Bill to the Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament for further scrutiny.
The minister’s remarks attracted cheers from MPs, mostly those in opposition benches, who were overheard saying: “We would not have passed that Bill.”