Malawi assets law is ‘legitimate fraud’ – Justice Link

Law expert and Executive Director of Justice Link , Justin Dzonzi says the Public Officers Declaration of Assets,Liabilities and Business Interest is just as a legitimate fraud that pretends to provide information on declared assets on one hand while concealing it on the other.

Dzonzi trashed the procedure for applying to access the assets information, saying all declared assets including those of President were supposed to be automatically made public even without anyone applying for access to them.

“No one should be applying for something that is supposed to be treated as public information,” said Dzonzi in comments attributed to him in the local press.

“ In essence, the declared assest were supposed to be compiled and published  in a booklet or on a database where Malawians should easily access them”, said Dzonzi

The lawyer said if the limitations are that strict, then Malawi shouldn’t have had the assets law in the first place.

“Why should the law allow something that is declared to be concealed?”, queried Dzonzi.

The lawyer also felt that all people who assume public positions including civil society organisations (CSOs) leaders need to declare their assets so that they too can be accountable to Malawians.

“It shouldn’t necessarily be confined to public servants. But, I understand that the emphasis is currently on public servants because they use public resources and therefore need to be accountable to the
public”, he said.

The assets law also give powers to the director to refuse or grant access to the declared assets if he deems it necessary.