The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has accused President Lazarus Chakwera and Speaker of the National Assembly, Catherine Gotani-Hara, of paralysing parliamentary committee meetings to dodge questions on the K6.2 billion Covid-19 response funds, which is feared to have been looted.
CDEDI executive director Sylvester Namiwa claims that their independent investigations revealed that the Gotani-Hara got
instructions from Chakwera to ensure that parliament is not functional during this time, in an attempt to cover up the abuse of the Covid-19 funds.
“CDEDI has noted with disappointment on the conduct by the State President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera and the Speaker of the National Assembly Hon. Catherine Gotani- Hara who seem to have conspired to paralyse the parliamentary committee
meetings on the pretext of the Covid-19 preventive measures. Our expectation was that the parliamentary committees such as those on Health, Budget and Finance, Public Accounts Committee and the Welfare Committee, were supposed to be meet to discuss the MK6.2 billion which has mysteriously grown wings at the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA),” Namiwa says in a statement issued on Monday night.
Namiwa alleges that Chakwera and Gotani-Hara have prioritized the meetings for the Public Appointments Committee (PAC) of parliament, solely to discuss the firing of the two Commissioners for the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) and the appointment of the Director General (DG) for the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA).
He has challenged Gotani-Hara to consider taking advantage of innovations in the world of technology to ensure that such committees, or better still the whole National Assembly resumes its meetings virtually.