Chakwera’s recovery plan queried
President Lazarus Chakwera’s recently unveiled Socio-Economic Recovery Plan (Serp) has come under scrutiny from legal, governance and accountability analysts for not consulting other sectors.
In a special write-up posted on his Facebook page, lawyer Kamudoni Nyasulu on Thursday questioned how the Judiciary and Legislature, the other two arms of government, can be made a footnote in a national policy and strategy unilaterally drawn up by a third organ, the Executive, that appropriates the national development agenda and a minimum of K580 billion.
He argued that the Serp reduces the Legislature, the Judiciary and their core responsibilities in “economic and democratic governance” to a footnote.
Nyasulu wrote: “Serp violates the constitutional construct, more so because it perpetuates the evasion of the constitutional construct by the Presidential Delivery Unit [PDU] and the Malawi 2063 Implementation Plan [MIP] 1 in clear contradiction to the spirit of the Malawi 2063 on setting and implementing ‘State’ [Legislature, Executive and Judiciary] priorities.
“The spirit and process for setting priorities was adopted by government in 2008 after the failures of the Poverty Reduction Strategies and MGDS I. Serp reduces the Legislature, the Judiciary and their core responsibilities in ‘economic and democratic governance’ sometimes referred to as ‘rule of law’ to a footnote.”
He said implementation of the Serp will be a violation of the Constitution, and that the Presidency is amassing to itself power and clout it had pledged to reduce.
Nyasulu, who has previously served as director of public prosecutions as well as prosecutor at special United Nations tribunals, said failure to consult the other bodies is in contravention of sections 4, 7, 8, 9, 12(f) and 13(o) of the Constitution applied to sections 3, 4 and 184 of the Public Finance Management Act.
In an interview on Thursday, Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira agreed with Nyasulu, saying while the recovery plan was long overdue, such plans ought to be done in a transparent way.
He said: “All stakeholders could have been engaged in the process, not when the plan has already been developed.
“Engagement of players helps in ensuring that interventions by both State and non-State actors
respond to and ensures ownership of the plan.”
Governance analyst Moses Mkandawire said citizens must understand the context in which they are, the challenges they encounter and how best they can overcome th situations.
He said: “That process requires multifaceted approach. Therefore, consultation or participation in such process is critical in that it ensures ownership of the process and also empowers a people to determine their own processes and outcomes.”
In his national address on Tuesday, Chakwera said the plan will ensure that the country stays on course with the implementation of the MW2063 first 10-year rollout plan.
He said success will also depend on cooperating partner nations both within the region and globally ensuring a global supply chain as well as citizens themselves complying to Covid-19 regulations, among others.
To get people involved, Chakwera said over the next few weeks, various members of his administration will engage them and cooperating partners to unpack the plan in detail.
Presidential press secretary Anthony Kasunda was yet to respond to the concerns raised by the commentators at the time we went to press.
