MRA, RBM get new boards
President Lazarus Chakwera’s administration has appointed boards of directors for Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) and Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA), two of the 67 parastatals whose boards were recently dissolved.
A statement signed by Chief Secretary to the Government Zangazanga Chikhosi yesterday indicated that the appointments were with immediate effect.
The new RBM board is chaired by the Governor Dr. Wilson Banda as provided in Section 13 of the RBM Act. The arrangement to have central bank governors chair their own boards is regarded as the best practice worldwide.
Other members of the RBM Board include deputy governors, Secretary to the Treasury, Randson Philimon Mwadiwa, retired Supreme Court judge Elton Singini, Nimia Kazimbi Mzembe, Mirriam Wemba and Maxwell Mkwezalamba.
The new MRA Board is chaired by Nico Holdings plc group managing director Vizenge Kumwenda with Lincon Bailey—a mining entrepreneur with Jamaican roots, Charles Thokozani Kuyokwa and Henry Harris Chowawa as members.
Besides the four, other members of the MRA Board are Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary for Trade, Secretary for Industry and the RBM Governor.
Chakwera, who was ushered into office through the court-ordered June 23 fresh presidential election, was faulted by legal minds for appointing John Biziwick as MRA commissioner general with two deputies—Henry Ngutwa (responsible for revenue) and Agnes Katsonga Phiri (responsible for administration).
Malawi Law Society (MLS) and South Africa-based Malawian professor of law Danwood Chirwa said the law empowers the MRA Board to make such appointments.
But Chakwera argued that the appointments were in an acting capacity to avert alleged plunder of taxes and destruction of critical documents.
