Roads Authority board removed for incompetence
Minister of Transport Jacob Hara has with immediate effect fired the Roads Authority board of directors, citing failure to discharge their duties and obligations under the Roads Authority Act.
In a statement confirming the dissolution, the minister said the move follows an inquiry which he commissioned under Section 16(1) of the Roads Authority Act into how the board of directors was discharging its duties.
Reads part of the letter: “The board of inquiry found, amongst others, serious corporate governance failures, failure to supervise the management of the Roads Authority in accordance with its mandate and project procurement oversight failures.”
Hara, in the statement, said the inquiry also established that non-compliance of the board led to a dysfunctional system at the authority, including delays in road projects completion, poor workmanship, misprocurements and exorbitant claims.
Hara said the non-compliance could not be remedied by the board of directors, as such, should be outrightly dismissed.
When contacted on Sunday, Joe Ching’ani, who was the chairperson of the authority’s board, declined to comment while one of the former board members, Boniface Dulani, said that he knew that would happen when the minister appointed the inquiry.
However, Dulani said since it is the prerogative of the minister to constitute a board, there is nothing that can be done about it.
“It is not like I applied anyway and it is the prerogative of the minister to appoint or dismiss the board. But I have always seen it coming right from when the minister constituted the inquiry into the discharge of duties by the board members,” he said.
Dulani said he has no grudges on who will be constituted into the new board and further said he is pleased with how he carried out his roles during the time he served as RA board member.
But our efforts to exorbitant claims.
Hara said the non-compliance could not be remedied by the board of directors, as such, should be outrightly dismissed.
When contacted yesterday, Joe Ching’ani, who was the chairperson of the authority’s board, declined to comment while one of the former board members, Boniface Dulani, said that he knew that would happen when the minister appointed the inquiry.
However, Dulani said since it is the prerogative of the minister to constitute a board, there is nothing that can be done about it.
“It is not like I applied anyway and it is the prerogative of the minister to appoint or dismiss the board. But I have always seen it coming right from when the minister constituted the inquiry into the discharge of duties by the board members,” he said.
Dulani said he has no grudges on who will be constituted into the new board and further said he is pleased with how he carried out his roles during the time he served as RA board member.
But our efforts to speak to Hara proved futile as he could not pick up our phone calls on numerous attempts.
Last week, the Ministry of Trade and Industry dissolved the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) board, barely days after the Ministry of Water and Sanitation also dissolved the board of National Water Resources Authority.
In February this year, the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) also resigned ahead of a scheduled hearing by the Public Appointments Committee (PAC) of Parliament following a request Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Zanga-zanga Chikhosi made to remove them due to alleged incompetence.
