President Lazarus Chakwera has threatened to fire Malawi Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director general Martha Chizuma if she ignores his directive which has been announced today.
Chakwera issued the warning this morning when he addressed the nation on the steps he has taken following a Commission of Inquiry report on the arrest of Chizuma over her leaked audio.
According to Chakwera, he has directed Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba to bring together heads of the agencies in the fight against corruption to agree on a framework to improve their collaboration.
Chakwera further said that he expects the heads of the agencies, which include the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Office of the Attorney General, to comply with the framework.
In a warning which appeared to be directed at Chizuma, Chakwera said he will remove without apology anyone who refuses to collaborate.
“I will remove from office without apology anyone who fails to, because while our system has agencies that are operationally independent, there are none that are constitutionally autonomous and none that are allowed to become anyone’s personal colony or empire with no accountability to anyone,” the president said.
He added that no strategy against corruption is a winning strategy if it does not treat interagency cooperation as a necessity.
He emphasized that the necessity of interagency cooperation is why, when he addressed the delegates of the anti-corruption conference last year, he called on the Anti-Corruption Bureau and all stakeholders to adopt a new approach that involves all institutions working together in order to make the fight against sustainable and the victories irreversible.
Chakwera’s fresh warning to fire Chizuma comes a year after he came close to firing her in January last year over her leaked audio.
The president at the time issued a warning to Chizuma and declared that he will keep a watchful eye over her conduct.
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