Malera
Malawi Ombudsman Grace Malera says Gerald Nsomba was hired as Export Development Fund (EDF) Chief Executive Officer despite not meeting minimum qualifications for the role.
Nsomba was hired as EDF boss in 2020 just before the June 23 Presidential Elections. EDF is a national development finance institution set up by Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) in collaboration with the government. Following Nsomba’s recruitment, RBM employees and concerned citizens complained to the Office of the Ombudsman.
Presenting her findings today, Malera said her office has established that Nsomba came a distant fourth during the interviews.
She added that Nsomba did not also have minimum qualifications for the job. The post required at least a master’s degree in Economics, Finance or Banking but Nsomba had a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and a post-graduate diploma in trade law and policy.
Malera argued that Nsomba was wrongly shortlisted and recruited, which exposes issues of Maladministration at the institution.
According to the report, after interviews in 2017, EDF board offered the job to candidate the first and second placed candidates who declined the offer because of the remuneration package.
Nsomba also rejected the first offer but accepted a reoffer after the EDF Board reviewed its remuneration package.
“I make a finding that the board of EDF procedurally transacted the business pertaining to the proposal for EDF to make a job re-offer to Nsomba.
“More importantly, the board of EDF acted unreasonably by making a job offer to a candidate in 2020, on the basis of interviews that the board had administered in 2017,” she said.
