Leadership lapse haunts deceased estate office, others
The office of the Administrator General (AG) under the Ministry of Justice has for the past two years been operating without a substantive AG and deputy, a situation Parliament says creates uncertainty and is a serious leadership lapse.
The office is responsible for the administration of deceased estates and other trusts by obtaining letters of administration or when the AG is appointed as an executor of an estate.
The vacancies at Capital Hill come at a time media reports show that inefficiencies at the Administrator General’s Office in Lilongwe are haunting claimants of death benefits and gratuities, forcing some to spend weeks-on-end waiting to be assisted.
The former AG Amani Mussa was moved back to the parent ministry as chief legislative counsel while the then deputy Peter Chisama died in February 2020.
In an interview on Wednesday Legal Affairs Committee (LAC) of Parliament chairperson Peter Dimba pointed out that the current AG Konjela Munde, who is based in Blantyre, has been acting for two years, adding that a prolonged period of appointment in an acting capacity amounts to discrimination and unfair labour practice.
Said Dimba: “In a country where many of our people die without writing a will, the importance of the office of the Administrator General cannot be overemphasised. As a committee, we are concerned that the current AG and deputy have been in acting positions for a long time. This is a serious leadership lapse that needs to be addressed urgently.”
Ministry of Justice spokesperson Pirirani Masanjala, in a written response last week, acknowledged that in the absence of a substantive head and deputy in the department, some operations are being affected, which is compromising service delivery.
He said: “However, I wish to inform you that the acting Administrator General and her team are doing all they can to mitigate the challenges that come with the absence of a substantive head in the department.”
Masanjala added that the ministry has recruited a number of new lawyers to reduce workload and that some of them have been posted to the Department of Administrator General, but he stressed that the appointment of a substantive head and deputy is very crucial.
Minister of Information and Digitisation Gospel Kazako also admitted in an interview that there are gaps in the smooth flow of work at the Administrator General’s Department, but gave assurance that “very soon the offices will be occupied”.
The office of the Administrator General is among government ministries, departments and agencies targeted in the on-going public sector reforms programme led by Vice-President Saulos Chilima.
In its scrutiny of the 2022/23 budget, LAC observed that the AG’s Department is facing challenges of maintenance of Administrator’s General Electronic Management (Adem) and recommended Treasury to allocate the department K11 million to improve the system.
The AG’s office fell vacant in June 2018 when Stephenson Kamphasa’s contract expired
In an interview on Thursday, Public Accounts Committee chairperson Shadric Namalomba observed that the failure to appoint the AG has partly been because of some hiccups in the current law, the Public Audit Act (PAA).
“The current Minister of Finance has already assured us that we will soon be amending the PAA to ensure that it is a good legislation that does not seem to favour a few others at the expense of the many others.
