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| National |
| Rampant abuse of resources in parastatals |
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by
Bright Sonani, 04 December 2004
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09:22:10
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There is rampant abuse of resources by board chairpersons of parastatals who are allocated vehicles and given housing accommodation, contrary to conditions of service that govern their positions, but the Ministry of Statutory Corporations has said it is not aware of any abuses since no head of the parastatals has ever complained on the issue.
Some chief executives have said they cannot turn down requests from board chairpersons for use of resources nor discipline them because the board chairs are political appointees.
On its part, the Ministry of Statutory Corporations has said the powers to discipline chairpersons who bulldoze companies into giving them more perks than they are entitled rest in the hands of the President who is the responsible minister.
Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Bright Msaka could not be reached for comment.
Among organisations whose chairpersons use company vehicles on a full time basis are the Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC), the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi Limited (Escom), the Malawi Communications and Regulatory Authority (Macra), the Central Region Water Board, the Petroleum Control Commission (PCC), the Southern Region Water Board and Airport Developments Limited (ADL). Government has at least 57 companies under its fold.
Terms and conditions of service of board members stipulate that the members would be given honoraria and sitting allowances as determined by government from time to time and that transport, accommodation and meals would be provided while on official board business.
Ministry of Statutory Corporation Principal Secretary Chrissy Mwiyeriwa said there are no executive board chairs who could be given full time vehicles and housing accommodation.
Southern Region Water Board General Manager Martin Chizalema admitted in an interview that since most of the chairs are political appointees, it is difficult for some chief executives to police the use of vehicles given to the chairpersons.
Chizalema said his company’s Chairman Willie Bapu is frequently seen with a company vehicle because he lives in Blantyre while the company’s head office is in Zomba.
“It is costly to keep the vehicle here because it means when he [the chairman] wants a vehicle it has to go all the way to Blantyre to pick him,” he said.
PCC General Manager Ishmael Chiwoko said his company has not allocated a full time vehicle to its Chairman Fyson Kachala but it looks like he uses the vehicle all the time because the chairman lives in Zomba.
“The use of the vehicle was sanctioned by the board itself. We have checks based on fuel usage per month and he is not supposed to go beyond what is allocated to him,” he said.
Kachala said the use of company facilities was a hangover from several previous chairpersons who took themselves as executive chairs.
“Like when I came here I was offered accommodation, but I said no. I think it is all because probably the former chairman was using those facilities. I do not know how the former PCC chair got the vehicle, it was just handed over to me,” said Kachala.
Late Davies Kapito, who was UDF regional governor for the South, was PCC chairman before Kachala.
Kachala, who was once at National Roads Authority (NRA), said when he went to NRA, a new vehicle had to be bought for him since his predecessor was using a company vehicle.
“This one was again just given to me,” he added.
But Kachala said some chairs use these company vehicles to avoid embarrassment of jumping onto public transport which, he said, could not portray a good image of the organisations these chairs are representing.
No queries
Central Region Water Board General Manager Christopher Zulu could neither deny nor admit his Chairman Vincent Chidzankufa is allocated a full-time vehicle but said since the Ministry of Statutory Corporations has never queried him on whatever is given to the chairman, he [the GM] takes this to mean everything is in order.
“These people are not chosen by us. It is up to those who appointed them to caution me if they feel I give the chairman more than what is supposed to be given to him. I have never been cautioned by anyone,” said Zulu.
Chairman Chidzankufa responded rather emotionally when asked to comment on the issue.
“I do not answer such stupid questions. What I thought is that you want me to answer on the developments at the Water Board,” he said.
MHC Public Relations Officer Lucy Kapito refused to comment on the vehicle which the parastatal's chairperson Ruth Lemani uses on a full-time basis.
“Issues concerning board chair’s conditions of service are better interpreted by the Statutory Ministry,” she said.
But, Lemani said use of the vehicles is a thing which most chairpersons inherited and it was up to government, who she said is the employer as a shareholder in those companies, to withdraw the vehicles if it thinks that they were being used illegally.
“In my case, they just gave me that vehicle. Had it been it was only one person it could have been a different case. But as far as I know, in almost all parastatals except subvented ones, their chairpersons use company vehicles. All the commercial parastatals do that. If there is anything wrong in that, it is up to government to enforce its policy,” she said.
Lemani said it was wrong to say that some chairpersons use their political muscle to be given the vehicles.
“How can you bulldoze a system which has structures in place?” she queried.
Lemani also said she was not aware of her conditions of service since she only got her letter of appointment from government without the said conditions.
ADL Chairman Father Dr. Leonard Namwera said people might think that he uses the company car on a full-time basis because he is constantly doing company business.
“The problem is that as chairman of a company some of us are always doing company work,” he said, adding that on average he is at ADL offices for business four times a week.
"Yes we are policy makers but there are some management issues which we have to get involved time and again. Sometimes we are called to sort out management problems," he said.
Namwera said as a chairman he is there to guide and advise the general manager of the company on day-to-day operations.
"In my case, I have never asked anything from the company. I was at one time at Macra but I never requested a car from there,” he said.
But inside sources at Macra say Father Namwera had a Toyota Camry vehicle under his continued use, which was damaged at one time and Macra had to replace the vehicle.
Meanwhile, just as his counterparts in other parastatals, Father Namwera said to avoid all the confusion that the use of company facilities was bringing, government should come up with clear guidelines on the issue.
Namwera, while admitting there are some board chairs who abuse facilities, said there is finger-pointing on what the board chairs get because some of them are appointed purely on the basis of their political alignment rather than merit.
He said it was now time that government put professionals and experts as board members and remunerate them accordingly.
“There are some board members who hardly contribute to whatever is discussed but there are others who even the chief executives acknowledge are doing a lot to the company and have to be rewarded accordingly,” said Namwera.
Macra Director-General Evans Namanja declined to comment on the current use of a full-time vehicle by its board chairperson and instead said the Principal Secretary for Information Hawa Ndilowe, who is a board member, would be in a better position to comment. Ndilowe could not be reached.
Nation Online investigations meanwhile show that the current Macra chair Abdul Pillane, just like his predecessor Joyce Banda, had a Toyota Prado vehicle and a driver for full-time use. Pillane is said to be frequently reporting for work at Macra (where he has an office and a secretary) and claiming duty allowances.
Nation Online has also established that Macra's previous chairs, a Mr. Kadzuwa and Mr. Dan Kamwaza never enjoyed any facilities as is the case with chairs Leonard Namwera, Joyce Banda and Abdul Pillane.
Pillane was said to be in a meeting.
Directing business
And reacting to a story this newspaper published two weeks ago about abuse of Escom's resources by its Chairperson Agrina Mussa, who is allocated a vehicle on a full time basis, the corporation admitted in a press advertisement last week the chairperson's use of Escom's facilities, saying she needs them to carry out her job.
"The Board does a lot of work and there are documents, files and so on that need an office. As the office is available, it is used by the Board through the chairperson," wrote Escom CEO Allexon Chiwaya when justifying the use of Escom guest house by Mussa's consultant and the house's staff quarters as an office for her. The chairperson was also reported to have a full-time Escom vehicle and driver. So did previous other chairs, according to the newspaper report
"The chairperson is so busy directing the business of Escom and as such Escom would like that its chairperson be left alone to focus on Escom and not be distracted," said the CEO's statement.
Admarc which is also on record of having its chairs allocated full time vehicles could not respond to questionnaire sent last week.
Comptroller of Statutory Corporations Southwood Ng’oma said in a separate interview that although the appointments of board chairs are based on the recommendations from the line ministries of the parastatals, only the minister responsible has powers to discipline or remove a chairperson if any abuses are reported.
Ng’oma also said the board chairs are supposed to be in office for two years with the current boards' tenure ending in August next year. But he said government was free to remove them prematurely since their contracts make it clear that it is not an employment contract and can be terminated any time.
“Any initiative to remove the chairs comes from the top. Our job is only to make recommendations to the minister responsible,” said Ng’oma.
Commenting on the performance and attitude of some of the board chairs, Ng’oma said since the current boards were appointed some time back, some of the issues will probably be considered when fresh appointments are made. He could not say if there are any plans to change the boards saying it was all up to President Bingu wa Mutharika who is the Minister for Statutory Corporations to make a move.
Former Minister of Finance Matthews Chikaonda is on record as having criticised appointments of board members which he said were usually not on merit. He also criticised the abuse of facilities by the board chairs. These, he said, were some of the reasons for the dismal performance of such companies.
Chikaonda, who is reputed for his 10-point economic plan, which was his economic blueprint for turning around the country's poor economic performance, recommended for the setting up of the Public Enterprise Reform and Monitoring Unit (Permu) to clean up the public companies and make them perform profitably.
Ministry of Finance spokesperson Milton Kutengule said he has no evidence on whether the parastatals have improved in their performance but he said government has put in place several reforms to ensure that the parastatals improve.
He said the reforms include appointment of both chairpersons and management team only on professional grounds to change management culture in the parastatals.
“And under the Public Finance Management Act (passed in 2003) there are stiff penalties for public resource mismanagement. This would also check on how companies manage their resources. We will also be meeting them regularly and we have been requesting financial returns,” he said.
On Chikaonda’s Permu, Kutengule said the unit which monitors financial performance of parastatals is still in place but is currently understaffed.
But Kutengule dismissed counter accusations between ministries of Statutory Corporations and heads of the parastatals as to who is supposed to control the chairs saying all have the responsibility.
He could not say whether the current boards will complete their term of office or be changed in line with Mutharika’s pledge of appointing people on merit and qualification.
Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament Respicious Dzanjalimodzi said his committee has not yet moved in to check the operations and performance of the parastatals since at the moment it was busy with government ministries and departments.
“We are looking at reports from as far back as 1997 and when we are through, we will look at the reports from the parastatals,” he said.
But Dzanjalimodzi pointed out that scrutinising the current operations and performance of the parastatals will depend on whether the Ministry of Finance has submitted the reports to Parliament.
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