Malawi Ombudsman elected director for Africa Ombuds body
Malawi’s Ombudsman, Martha Chizuma-Mwangonde is now one of the three regional directors for Africa for the global International Ombudsman Institute (IOI).
The 190 member IOI, which is headquartered in Vienna, Austria was formed in 1978 with the mandate to investigate incidences of injustices occasioned by maladministration.
Following her election she automatically became a board member IOI and joins some board members from Asia, Australia, the Pacific, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and North America.
The other two directors, also elected at the 11th World International Ombudsman Conference held the in Thai Capital Bangkok, are Caroline Sokoni from Zambia and another one from Ivory Coast. The trio will hold office for four years subject to re- election.
“Well its a great honour for me personally, the office of ombudsman and Malawi. We will be able to influence agenda at such high level in as far as issues of governance, rule of law are concerned. Its a great forum for us also to learn and try to influence some areas where we are lacking on governance issues in the country. All in all this is great,” Mwangonde told Nyasa Times.
With over a year now on the job, Chizuma-Mwangonde, the youngest Ombudsman in the history of the office, seem to be steering the office towards issues of systemic investigations and maladministration in public institutions.
Accoridng to Mwangonde, the ultimate vision for Ombudsman from now up to 2021 is to have a Malawi free of maladministration.
“My office will among other things be policing all forms of bad administration in the country, rectifying and remedying of all forms of injustices occasioned to Malawians by various government bodies and set standards for provision of services,” Mwangonde is on record saying.
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Congratulations Madame, only that am not sure if the office in Malawi is doing its citizens good.
I hope this boosts the Ombudsmans office to seriously tackle the huge backlog of unresolved cases in the office. The Ombudsmans office is yet to prove its effectiveness. My impression so far is that the office is a toothless bulldog.Culprit ministries easily ignore its determinations leaving the victims of maladministration in the cold.
Congratulations for putting Malawi on the map in so far as the duties of the Office of the Ombudsman are concerened. On your 2021 vision to make Malawi free of maladministration, I have these words: review past successes of the civil servants working in the civil service that had both Europeans and Africans working together soon after Malawi attained independence. Civil servants were efficient, competent, diligent and honest. And then compare the current Civil service which is full of Africans but have brought in negligence, inattention, delays, incompetence, inefficiency and ineptitude in the administration or discharge of duties. Note their… Read more »
congratulations mama!!!