Kunkuyu coerce MACRA board to renew Nsaliwa’s contract
Minister of information and Civic Education Moses Kunkuyu on Monday summoned the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) board of directors to press them to renew the contract of its Director General Charles Nsaliwa which expires this Friday.
Kunkuyu summoned the Macra board to a meeting which was held at a top notch Blantyre restraunt Casa Mia where he told them that he wanted to get an update on the controversial ‘spy machine’.
“But as the meeting went on, he brought the issue of Nsaliwa’s contract which expires on Friday this week,” said a source who attended the meeting.
“He told us that it was not him who will renew Nsaliwa’s contract but said he should be considered for renewal because he has ‘helped’ government a lot. We knew that this was the main issue for the meeting because the spy machine is in court and in fact the court ruled that it should not be implemented.
“In fact he told us that we should come up with our decision by Friday ‘whether you would want him to stay on or not’,” added our source.
But some board members told the minister in the face that they will have to follow procedures of advertising for the post so that everyone deserving should compete for the post.
“In fact we reminded the minister that we instructed Macra Legal Affairs Manager James Kaphale to prepare an advert for the post of Director General of Macra to appear in the local press two weeks ago but it was not done,” said the source.
It is not known whether the board will bow to Kunkuyu’s demands to give Nsaliwa another three year contract or will stick to its guns to advertise for the post.
However, Nyasa Times investigations have revealed that Kaphale prepared the advert for the post of Director General for Macra but was told not to go ahead publishing the advert by Controller of Statutory Corporations Nwazi Nthambala.
Insiders said Nthambala wants Nsaliwa to continue in his post as he is a good friend to a Judge who has sired a child with Nthambala.
The sources said some prominent businessmen like Ufulu Loga have also been trying to convince Chief Secretary to the Government Bright Msaka to have Nsaliwa’s contract renewed.
“Ufulu (Loga) is one of the beneficiaries of Nsaliwa as he was given a contract to construct a tower and it’s no small money to construct a tower and all these people have been going to Msaka to plead with him to let Nsaliwa stay on his job,” said an insider.
Nsaliwa has been accused of some vices at Macra like the role he played in the purchase of a spy machine at a whooping US$6.8 million, buying of his official car, a Toyota Prado worth K10 million at a heavily discounted price of K 1 million and also giving of a contract to his daughter and close friend without following proper procedures.
Nsaliwa’s contract expires on December 9 this year.
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