Mutharika’s Malawi parastatal boards appointment ‘illegal’ – report

The appointments which President Peter Mutharika made for  board members in the Parastatal organisations have been deemed “illegal” as the Head of State is said to have flouted statues by appointing more members to at least seven parastatal organisations than is required by the law, according to newspaper report.

Legal experts argue that the Presidential goof invalidates the November 2014 boards appointments while Department of Statutory Corporation said it is rectifying the problem, Weekend Nation reported.

According to lawyer Justin Dzonzi an executive director of Blantyre-based think-tank Justice Link  that promotes access to justice ,  the appointments cannot be valid if the number of board administrators exceeds the number stipulated in the laws

He then advised the appointing authority to give way to new appointments that will comply with the respective acts

Economist Henry Kachaje argued that the board appointments that contradict legal framework guiding the operations of parastatal organisations compromises the board’s mandate to provide governance and oversight roles to the institutions.

Department of Statutory Corporation spokesperson, Flemmings Nyirenda,  told the paper that government and the department of statutory corporations are “ aware of the anomalies and (are) doing everything possible to rectify the problem.”

Parastatals which floated board membership include Roads Authority(RA),Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra),Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC),National Commission for Science and technology (NCST),Malawi National council of Sports, Small Medium Enterprises Development institute (Smedi) and Pharmancy, medicines and Poisons Boards (PMPB).

Board members, who were last week undergoing training in corporate governance, are yet to start discharging their duties.