In Malawi, the Parliamentary Appointment Committee (PAC) has rejected Tumalisye Ndovi as President Bingu Wa Mutharika’s choice for director of the country’s Anti-Corruption Bureau. But the government is blaming PAC for failing to furnish President Mutharika with Ndovi’s shortcomings. But PAC responded by advising the government to look for a better candidate to avoid further embarrassment to the president.
Chikumbutso Mtumodzi is President Mutharika’s press secretary. From the capital, Lilongwe he told VOA that PAC failed to give reasons for rejecting the president’s appointee.
“As has been the case, there is no way the Public Appointments Committee can just turn down the president’s appointment without giving reasons. So what has happened is like, the State President Bingu Wa Mutharika has requested PAC to indicate Mr. Ndovi’s shortcomings to avoid their recurrences in his next appointment. So the committee has not actually responded. As a result the status quo remains irrevocable,” he said.
Mtumodzi dismissed claims by the chairman of PAC that the committee wrote President Mutharika explaining their reason for Ndovi’s appointment.
“Do you really think that Honorable Njobvuyalema was telling the truth…if indeed they had actually indicated the shortcomings of Tumalisye Ndovi, the president would have taken that into account. So in a nutshell, PAC has not written to the president about anything related to the shortcomings of Ndovi,” Mtumodzi noted.
He compared the qualification of the president’s nominee to that of the former director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Gustav Kaliwo.
“To begin with, Ndovi is was replacing Gustav Kaliwo. Before Gustav Kaliwo went into private practice, he was the chief legal officer at the Malawi Police Service, from there; he served as a private lawyer. That was when he was appointed as the director of the Anti Corruption Bureau. Likewise, Ndovi was the had of the police legal service, and apart from that he also holds a first degree in Social Sciences and a second degree as a lawyer. So you can see that Ndovi and Kaliwo have got a lot of similarities,” he pointed out.
Mtumodzi insisted the president’s nominee is well qualified to be the director of the ACB.
“Ndovi has all what it takes and is qualified for the job. That is why the president resubmitted his name for the second time,” Mtumodzi said.
He said some Malawian’s are not being patriotic.
“It is obvious that people are being personal. They are not being ethical and professional in accepting any appointment which has been made by the president,” he said.
Mtumodzi said President Mutharika has the mandate to choose whom he deems fit to appoint as director of the ACB.
“The president has got a prerogative right to appoint people of his choice and people who he thinks are capable. And in this instance, Ndovi falls into this category. So I would rather say that the issue of the president exercising prerogative right has got nothing to do with PAC. Ndovi has got all the necessary papers (qualification). You can see he is a capable man. He has served the Malawi Police Service for more than ten years at a very senior level. So in this case, there is no merit in the argument made by PAC,” he said.