Civil society group wants Mera acting CEO out, threatens court action

Centre for the Development of People (Cedep) officials have asked the government to remove the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) acting chief executive officer Stain Ishmael Chioko out of office, saying he is connected to cashgate, abuse of public money.

Cedep executive director Gift Trepence said his organisation would drag Mera board to court if it fails to fire Chioko.

“Mr Chioko is a cashgate suspect. The board has also acknowledged this therefore we wonder why they suspended the chief executive (Ralph Kamoto] because of cashgate just to replace him with another cashgate suspect,” Trapence said.

He said Cedep has already contacted its lawyers on the issue.

“You fire a person [suspected] for abusing of public funds and you replace with another person answering the same charges,” he said.

Chioko, who was Mera’s director of legal services and company secretary,  was arrested for his role in the alleged transferring of properties belonging to former Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo who, alongside his wife Thandizo.

He was charged with aiding and abetting a crime and money laundering in his capacity as chairperson of the board of trustees for the ironically named Good Deeds Trust currently under ACB probe.

Mera board officials were not avaiable for comment on the issue.