PAC confirms Mera board

The Public Appointments Committee (PAC) of Parliament yesterday confirmed newly-appointed Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) board members.

The committee had at the weekend rejected two members, Innocencia Chirombo and Rodrick Chingota, for varied reasons and President Lazarus Chakwera on Tuesday replaced the two with Phyllis Manguluti and McCider Katulukira.

Inside sources within PAC confirmed to The Nation that  Manguluti and Katulukira’s confirmation happened yesterday during the commttees meeting in Salima.

The committee also confirmed Mera board chairperson Reckford Kampanje after he presented a letter of resignation from the National Oil Company (Nocma) board where he served as a member.

Earlier it had withheld Kampanje’s confirmation because he was serving in Nocma board and could not be allowed to double his roles.

In an interview, PAC chairperson Joyce Chitsulo confirmed that the committee met yesterday over the matter, but could not give further details.

Manguluti has been retained after serving in the previous board that was deemed incompetent by the Office of the President and Cabinet.

Under Mera Act, it is a requirement for the appointing authority to retain some previous board members to sustain institutional memory.

Governance expert Henry Chingaipe yesterday said retaining members from a previous incompetent board goes against principles of good governance.

He wondered how the member identified saying if the whole board was found incompetent then there was no need to retain any of them.

Said Chingaipe: “It is difficult because the law requires that they retain some. You know how things are done in this country. If they had reconstituted a board without retaining any member, then someone would go to court to challenge the appointments for the breach of the law.”

He said there are two ways, either to break the law by not retaining some members or breaking the governance principles that are not enforceable under law.

Chingaipe said the most important thing for the government is to hold the legality of action; hence, the government chose the legal way though it raises eyebrows from the governance perspective.

The previous Mera board of directors resigned on February 27 2022 ahead of a scheduled hearing by the PAC  following a request from Secretary to the President and Cabinet Zanga-Zanga Chikhosi for their removal due to alleged poor handling of the recruitment of Mera chief executive officer Henry Kachaje.