SPC no-show irks committee
Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has expressed disappointment with Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Colleen Zamba’s failure to show up for a scheduled meeting.
Committee chairperson Mark Botomani said in an interview yesterday they will take up the matter to the National Assembly.
He said: “We have taken this matter very seriously as a committee. The way forward is for me now as chairperson to report the matter to the assembly through the Speaker and then we’ll take it from there.”
But in a telephone interview yesterday, Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) chief communications officer Robert Kalindiza said the office had already communicated to the committee, through the Principal Secretary for Administration that Zamba would not be available.
He said Zamba is currently in London, United Kingdom where President Lazarus Chakwera is scheduled to attend the coronation of King Charles III.
But Botomani insisted there was no communication from OPC that the SPC would not make it.
He said it has been a tradition that after meeting various government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) on audit queries the committee meets with the SPC.
“ The committee ha s been doing this from time immemorial and I recall that we actually met the immediate past SPC Zanga-zanga Chikhosi three times. This is why it is surprising that the current SPC is not showing up,” Botomani said.
Among other issues, he cited the general observations on the MDA’s failure to follow laid down procedures on various issues, including procurement, stores, fuel and vehicle usage.
Botomani said: “There are also other issues like people that retired a long time ago still appearing on the payroll in the civil service; and the performance audit of some institutions such as the Malawi Police Service. So, there are so many issues that we had intended to discuss with her.”
This is not the first time Zamba has snubbed summons to face a parliamentar y committee.
In March this year, members of Parliament, especially from the opposition benches, threatened not to approve the K19.8 billion OPC budget allocation due to the SPC’s failure to appear before Parliament on accountability issues.
Forum for National Development (FND), a local non-governmental organisation, also wrote the Speaker to issue arrest warrants for Zamba and Ministry of Energy Principal Secretary Alfonso Chikuni for contempt of Parliament after they failed to appear before the Public Appointments Committee in November 2022, to respond to allegations of bulldozing former National Oil Company of Malawi acting chief executive officer Helen Buluma to dubiously award fuel contracts.
Leader of Opposition in Parliament Kondwani Nakhumwa supported the FND position, arguing that nobody is indispensable under the laws of Malawi.
Parliament only passed the OPC vote after Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda assured that the SPC would be available in future.
