Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Spokesperson on Legal Affairs Bright Msaka has told president Lazarus Chakwera to refrain from trying to gag the Malawi Human Rights Commission and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
Msaka was responding to president Chakwera’s national address on the progress of the fight against Covid-19 pandemic.
In his address on February 14, Chakwera announced that the Malawi’s graft fighting body Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the Human Rights Commission have been included in the Presidential Taskforce on Covid-19.
However, Msaka has described the inclusion as unnecessary claiming that the bureau will not be able to effectively provide oversight on the management of Covid-19 funds since it is part of decision making in the taskforce.
Msaka said the President’s reasoning for their inclusion is either faulty or outright suspicious claiming it is obvious that the President wants to gag the two independent institutions by including them in the taskforce.
He added that there is no way an oversight body, such as the ACB, should be placed in a situation where, if something should go wrong in the Covid-19 Committee, the ACB would be investigating itself and arrest itself.
The DPP’s legal expert further added that the inclusion of the ACB and the Malawi Human Rights Commission in the Covid-19 Committee is a ruse intended to prevent the truth from coming out.
“We do not think that the President is being naive. We think the President is cleverly trying to create complete paralysis of the two independent institutions by stifling the kind of oversight intended in the Constitution and in the law.
“How can a referee be a player in the same game he is officiating? How can a person be expected to chase with the hounds, and at the same time run together with the hare. How can a judge participate in an enterprise over which he later has to adjudicate upon?” Wondered Msaka.
According to Msaka, the President is trying to hoodwink Malawians into believing that he is serious about getting to the bottom of the K6.2bn debacle.
