Biziwick under fire at Malawi Revenue Authority over nepotism charges
All is not well at Malawi’s tax collecting body where the Commissioner General John Biziwick is under fire for his management style and recruitment of ‘close’ relations.
Since the arrival of Biziwick soon after the change of government in April last year, he has managed to bloat the number of managers to a whooping 85, all which go with a hefty salary, company cars, medical scheme and other benefits.
Insiders said Biziwick, a close relation of former MCP leader John Tembo, is sidelining professionals for close family and personal friends in running the organization.
Sources also said Biziwick has an appetite of travel and that most of the times he is hitting the sky attending a conference or a meeting which he could easily delegate.
An employee of NBS bank, where Biziwick was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) before moving to MRA, corroborated the story on his love of flying saying when he was at the bank he was hardly in the country.
MRA sources said Biziwick has hired Derby Tsilizani Phiri as a Human Resources Consultant against laid down procedure.
“Everyone here knows that there is ‘something’ going on between the two and no one wants to step on the toes of Mrs Tsilizani Phiri, otherwise you may end up being demoted or even being fired,” said the source.
Sources also said Biziwick has recruited several journalists in the public relations office to help him ‘suppress’ some of his management flaws especially his ‘relationships’ with female employees.
Among the journalists hired include former MBC journalist Wadza Otomani, Emma Mwasinga and Funsani John Scander.
Sources also said Biziwick is not popular with fellow senior management colleagues as evidenced by the splitting of two Commissioners of Imports and Exports.
“Commissioner of Exports Shadreck Namalomba was ably handling both customs and excise but Biziwick called back Agness Katsonga Phiri who was fired at MRA earlier and split the posts between Namalomba and Katsonga Phiri,” said the source.
“There are a lot of people who are frustrated with his management style here and this is a ticking bomb, one day things will be out of hand and there will be a reaction and it will be bad,” added the source.
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