PAC admits failing to reduce APM’s powers

The Public Affairs Committee (PAC) has declared that its fight for reduction of presidential powers is now a lost  battle.

But a political analyst at Chancellor College has cautioned PAC against giving up easily on the matter.

PAC publicity secretary Father Peter Mulomole said in an interview on Wednesday that they tried all they could, including tabling the matter about reducing presidential powers at the body’s Sixth All-Inclusive Stakeholders Conference in June this year, but it has become clear, “we won’t get anything out of this”.

Mulomole mentioned about the lost battle on the presidential powers when asked to take stock of resolutions PAC made at the June conference.

The delegates recommended establishment of a Public Appointments Commission.

But when put to him that PAC cited civil disobedience, demonstrations and seeking court intervention if some resolutions were not acted upon or implemented, Mulomole said those actions are for concerned participants with particular interests.

“PAC was there to lead the process.  It is now up to the particular interested groups to take a lead on these actions. There were timeframes set and I am sure concerned parties are following up with keen interest,” he said.

According to a communiqué PAC published in The Nation of June 23 2017, after the conference closed in Blantyre on June 8, resolutions that were to force participants to call for demonstrations included the impartiality of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), and in general, government’s failure to implement the resolutions.

The communiqué stated that should the governing party continue abusing MBC and traditional authorities, it would be dragged to court within 30 to 60 days to force authorities to act on it.

Loss of trust in President Peter Mutharika’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration and failure to implement PAC’s resolutions are some of the issues participants put a timeframe of 90 days to be sorted out or face demonstrations.

According to Mulomole, opening of University of Malawi’s Chancellor College (Chanco) and the arrest of former minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development George Chaponda, is just what has been achieved so far.

He said whether it was sheer coincidence that responsible institutions acted on these matters, PAC was impressed that at least the two issues have been acted upon.

But Mulomole said PAC has given up on the demand for the President to reduce his appointing powers, where participants to its conference recommended having in place a special appointment committee to look into applications for  prime public positions.

Mulomole added: “It is a lost battle, to be fought another day. It may be after the 2019 Tripartite Elections. It is clear the President, as was promised in their [DPP] manifesto, and later while in power, is not ready to relinquish some of the presidential powers.”

The PAC publicity secretary regretted that the governing DPP could not live up to its promises.

But Minister of Information, Communications and Technology, Nicholas Dausi, said in an interview on Wednesday that PAC misunderstood the whole issue, arguing that presidential powers were already trimmed where Parliament is made to confirm most of the appointments the President makes.

“That is how democracy works; the President appoints and Parliament may endorse that appointment or reject it. This was never the case during the one-party system. When Kamuzu Banda appointed, that was final,” he argued.

The system where the President appoints and Parliament confirms started at the dawn of democracy, with the United Democratic Front (UDF) administration in 1994, but the current Mutharika administration promised more regarding the President as appointing authority.

And when this was put to Dausi, he insisted that the whole thing is misunderstood, arguing that even in developed nations such as United States of America, President Donald Trump has powers to appoint over 500 officers in influential positions that are confirmed by that country’s lawmakers.

Dausi, on developments that have happened on Chanco and the arrest of Chaponda, said institutions act independently on decisions they make, and not because PAC or anybody else dictated to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) or any other governance  institution what to do.

“The ACB had to carry out investigations before they rushed to arrest anyone. We, as government, don’t influence the bureau to take any action. When there is an issue such as the Chanco matter, there are responsible bodies that take up the matter and, where necessary for the President to act as Chancellor of the University of Malawi, he does so within his powers,” Dausi said.

Mulomole, while admitting that they have given up on the presidential powers fight, said PAC would pick up the battle in future and reiterated that it is not a battle they can win before the May 2019 polls.

The PAC spokesperson said the other issue, among their resolutions, they felt would have been sorted out fast is review and amendment of the Local Government Act—to remove parliamentarians from voting during council meetings.

“We have been very slow on this one. This has unnecessarily taken too long simply because it is an issue that affect them. They still want to have voting powers at council meetings, but that defeats the whole purpose of decentralisation and democracy,” Mulomole said.

But Mustafa Hussein, a political scientist at department of political and administrative studies at Chanco, said in an interview on Friday that PAC needed not to give up on anything that came out as a resolution.

He said PAC must take all issues to duty-bearers and force them to implement, warning that failing to do that would put PAC’s credibility at stake as people would start raising questions.

The political scientist argued that although PAC played a leading role and expected bodies with particular interests to act, it still has a role to play by engaging interested parties on particular issues.

“It is PAC that called for the conference. Delegates discussed a wide range of issues and made resolutions, and attached time-frames to them. PAC must walk the talk and be on top of all these issues,” Hussein said.

President Mutharika commitment to have his powers trimmed as part of the Public Service Reforms Commission which he championed in June 2014, but he has since reneged on his promise.

Among, the promises, as suggested by the reform proposals, the appointment of principal secretaries in Grade C and above were to be made by a competitive process of advertising  and interviewing applicants, something that has never been applied.

Besides other demands by PAC, the delegates to the inclusive conference also recommended a cut in maize prices [K12 500 per bag] at State produce trader Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) within 30 days. This has not yet been done yet, save for government setting the buying price of the commodity from the farmers this season at K170 per kilogramme.

Other recommendations made included bringing back to Parliament the Land Bills and expedition of the passing of the Electoral Reforms Bill.

President Mutharika, to be more specifically, failed to relinquish his appointing authority for the Malawi Communication Regulatory Authority (Macra) and Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) boards and their directors generals.

Earlier, in 2015, the Cabinet shot down amendments to the Communications Bill, among them the reduction of the President’s powers to appoint boards.

This was after Mutharika declared earlier that he had accepted recommendations from the Public Service Reform Commission to reduce his appointing powers. n