PAC warns parastatal boards on recruitment
The Public Appointments Committee Parliament (PAC) has warned the country’s parastatals’ board of directors which do not follow recruitment procedures when employing public officers that they will face the law individually if they breach procedures.
The warning follows the resignation of Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) board chairperson Leonnard Chikadya and his entire board yesterday.
The board chairperson and members were supposed to appear before the committee in Blantyre over the botched appointment of Mera chief executive officer (CEO) Henry Kachaje.
will follow them
The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) last week faulted and accused the board of being incompetent in the recruitment process and sought PAC’s approval to remove it.
PAC chairperson Joyce Chitsulo said the Mera board issue is not an isolated one as the committee has been receiving a lot complaints to do with the recruitment of public officers in statutory corporations.
She said: “They [boards] are not supposed to be selective but have to stick to what the laws are saying. If they do that we will be saving a lot of government resources and time.
“So, this should be a warning to other boards, if they mess up the law will follow them. So let them do things right.”
Chitsulo said the committee was yesterday expected to meet Mera board chairperson Chikadya and his vice Innocencia Chirombo in Blantyre, but only the latter showed up.
While on Saturday, the committee met Controller of Statutory Corporation Peter Simbani before meeting two Mera board members Thokozani Chinkono and Phyllis Mangulutu.
She said after hearing from three board members, the committee noted that Kachanje’s recruitment process was irregular.
“How Kachaje was shortlisted, interviewed and his academic qualifications were questionable,” said Chitsulo.
She said all the board members have since resigned before PAC has made its determination on whether to remove them as requested by the OPC on the grounds of incompetence.
“They [board] didn’t do the right thing. We will be writing the Secretary to the President and Cabinet responding to his letter.
“We will also admit that indeed it is true that the appointment of the Mera CEO was wrong, but then we didn’t conclude to say these people are not competent,” said Chitsulo.
Chirombo refused to grant The Nation an interview after the meeting.
But in his resignation letter dated February 26 2022, Chikadya claims that the OPC has been searching for good reasons to remove the Mera board because of the professional manner in which the board has been handling various issues in the interests of protecting the economic and social welfare of Malawians.
Other Mera board members could not be reached for comment
