Speaker seeks legal opinion on JB’s assets

Speaker of the National Assembly Henry Chimunthu Banda has asked for a legal opinion from the Attorney General (AG) on how to handle President Joyce Banda’s asset declaration.

Speaking in an exclusive interview this week, Chimunthu Banda said he sent a letter to the AG on Tuesday this week following public pressure on his office to announce President Banda’s assets, which she is said to have declared early this year.

“I have referred the matter to the Attorney General for interpretation. I have done this because of the calls that have been there [to make assets of the President public],” he said.

The Speaker, who declined to say whether the President declared her assets or not,  wondered what law he could rely on to make assets of the President or any of the 193 legislators’ public, arguing  the declaration of assets law—last amended in 2001—“is ambiguous”.

He was referring to Section 88 A (1) of the Constitution which reads: “The President and members of the Cabinet shall, within three months from the date of election or appointment, as the case may be, fully disclose all of their assets, liabilities and business interests, and those of their spouses, held by them or on their behalf as at that date; and, unless Parliament otherwise prescribes by an Act of Parliament, such disclosure shall be made in a written document delivered to the Speaker of the National Assembly who shall immediately upon receipt deposit the document with such public office as may be specified in the Standing orders of Parliament”.

But chairperson of the Public Appointments Committee (PAC) and Declaration of Assets Nick Masebo said the Standing Order in reference is silent as to which public office the document declaring assets would be deposited, suggesting the need for an overhaul of the provision relating to the declaration of assets.

Masebo said it was up to government, the Malawi Law Commission, to establish a public office where the document declaring the assets could be deposited and state who exactly must declare their assets.

Masebo said: “For example, who can the Speaker declare his assets to? Such issues are not addressed.”

AG Anthony Kamanga in an interview on Thursday said he had not seen the letter from the Speaker as he was not in office, but said he was going to attend to the correspondence.

“If the Speaker said he has written me, trust him, he cannot lie about that,” said Kamanga.

President Banda—who assumed the presidency in April 2012 following the death of president Bingu wa Mutharika—initially refused to declare her assets, arguing she had already declared the assets when she was vice-president.

But newly appointed Irrigation and Water Development minister Brown Mpinganjira recently disclosed that the President declared her assets this year, contradicting her earlier stand.

Mpinganjira blamed the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) for not correcting the record when the President was being criticised on the matter.

OPC confirmed that the President declared her assets and that the declaration had been forwarded to Parliament, shifting pressure to the Speaker to make the President’s assets public.

The spirit of the framers of the declaration of assets provision was to check illegal accumulation of wealth, and that can only work, for example, if the public is made aware of what a President is worth before assuming office and at the end of their tenure.

Legal experts, including Chancellor College law professor Edge Kanyongolo, have also stated that the provision requires amendment if it is to be effective and usable.