Malawi Parliaments shoots down presidential appointments in National Planning Commission
Opposition parliamentarians on Friday shot down proposals in a bill that would have empowered a sitting head of state appoint public officers.
Finance, Economic Planning and Development Minister Goodall Gondwe had tabled in the House a bill seeking to establish a National Planning Commission.
Gondwe proposed in the bill that commissioners be appointed by a sitting President.
However, this did not go down well with the opposition members of parliament. Some of them noted that institutions whose members are appointed by the president are not performing to the expections of Malawians whilst others said giving powers to the President to make the appointments would fan corruption.
The President also appoints board members of statutory corporations most of whom, including Escom and waterboards, perform below par.
Tthe National Planning Commission (NPC) will help to formulate and review policies and strategic plans for national development and also recommend allocation of resources.
It will be an independent body for strategic thinking on matters of national development, established by an Act of Parliament.
Development experts have always called for a national development plan that could guide the country’s long-term development agenda.
NPC will be housed in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), headed by a director general with the rank of deputy chief secretary.
The commission shall be reporting to the National Planning Council, which will be chaired by the President and deputised by Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development and their main purpose will be to ensure continuity of development.
Just Imagine Govt coming up with such a bill.
Am of the view that problems we have in the country are not as a result of lack of planning but priorties.
When we put these people into office they assume more powers than us , stop listening to us think of the next election and hence resort to embezzlement of public funds.
Examples are vivid!
Good show opposition,y
Creating this Commission is nothing short of isomorphic mimicry. This is our enduring curse: Form without functionality. What we need is a regulatory framework that will demand execution and continuity of strategic plans. One that fosters accountability, perfomance measurement and disincentivices political shorttermism. We need to elect visionary leaders and stop stealing public money. Planning in itself is meaningless if not anchored in the right institutional milieu. We are in fact not short of plans (Vision 2020; MGDS, ERP, SWAPs, etc) including a deluge of technical advice from donors, IMF, World bank and our own technocrats. Our public service probably… Read more »
Bravo Oppositions MPs untill tiphwese tube chopopa tokhachi.
Keep on Kusosola Nthenga. Mphamvu zichepebe. Mwina checks and balances ya three arms of Govt zingayambe kuyenda bwino.
The President not be the appointing authority of the Commissioners? How will they be appointed, then? This will be a parastatal, and how likely is it that its Board will not have to be appointed by the president? Perhaps, we could allow the president appoint (of course to be followed by parliament’s vetting). To control political manipulations, the control should be on the term of office and removal from office. The president should not have powers to dismiss the the Commissioners, but parliament shoukld have, and the Commissioners should have longer terms, say SEVEN YEARS, as oppossed to the president’s… Read more »
Unfortunately, I don’t think that what we lack in Malawi for prosperity is this Commission. It will just be a duplication of roles within governement departments and Ministries. What’s the Economic Planning and Development, Ministry of Finance, and RBM there for? What will their other roles pertaining to research, and development planning become with the inception of this Commission? I see this as another way of bloatening governement expenditure. If the aim is employment creation, fine and good, it’ll be a success. As if that is not enough, I wonder how the said Commission will be framed so that its… Read more »
This will obviously not benefit Malawi. The way the govt wants HE to appoint the commissioners, the opposition says no. Already there is another white elephant on the horizon. There is Department of Economic Planning (EPD) which simply changes from a dept to a full ministry. Then there is Ministry of Finance. Then all the departments, including Works, Fisheries, Defence have got economists. Our problems do not come from failure to plan. They come from failure to implement. And as long as we can’t implement anything, our nation is doomed to more suffering.