PAC scrutinises Legal Aid appointees
The appointment of a director and deputy for the newly established Legal Aid Bureau has delayed because the Public Appointments Committee (PAC) of Parliament has been scrutinising the track records of the appointees.
The candidates interviewed for the positions are lawyers and the parliamentary committee submitted their names to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Malawi Law Society (MLS), Malawi Police Service (MPS) and Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. The committee would later discuss the findings starting on Monday.
PAC was mandated to interview and appoint a director for Office of Public Officers Declarations, but the ACB arrested the appointed person, Chris Tukula, on allegations of defeating the course of justice on a matter which occurred in 2013.
PAC chairperson Lingson Belekanyama said in an interview yesterday the candidates for the positions are all lawyers as stipulated in the Legal Aid Act, which established the Legal Aid Bureau.
The bureau, established through the Legal Aid Act of 2010, is not yet operational because the appointment of a director and deputy to head the institution has not been made.
After reports from the institutions, the Solicitor General will also scrutinise the candidates before communicating the successful candidates to the National Assembly Secretariat.
The committee is still deliberating conditions of service for the new appointees before embarking on those for other members of staff for the bureau.
“Most of the staff of Legal Aid Department will be incorporated into the Legal Aid Bureau and their conditions of service will change. That is what we will be looking into next week,” he said.
The Legal Aid Act will also create a legal aid fund where donors, civil society organisations and individuals will pool funding for its operations apart from funding from government through the budget.
