Govt erred on Admarc Bill, say legal experts,Govt erred on Admarc Bill, say legal experts
by: Mabvuto Banda,Mabvuto Banda, 12/30/2003, 6:37:39 PM

Legal experts have condemned the registration of Admarc as a limited company by government before Parliament repealed the act governing the corporation, saying that it is illegal and a sign of political dishonesty by the leadership.
Records at the Registrar of Companies in Blantyre show that government registered Admarc as a limited company on 19 November, 2003 with a capital injection of K1 million. Ministry of Finance has 99 percent shareholding while Admarc general manager has 1 percent.
Secretary of the Malawi Law Society Charles Mhango on Tuesday said that it was wrong and irregular for government to register a company before Parliament debated on the bill.
“The proposal in the bill was to commercialise Admarc and now if the bill fails again, it will mean that there are two entities existing under the same name of Admarc and one has to be deregistered as a remedy,” Mhango said.
Chancellor College Law Lecturer Edge Kanyongolo described the move as political dishonesty and duplicity of the highest order.
“My own view is that the registration of such a company is political dishonesty especially that there is a mass of people opposed to the bill,” he said.
Malawi Congress Party legal adviser Edwin Banda said that the registration of the company is an economic coup d’etat because Admarc already exists.
“They have already taken steps by setting up a company before Parliament is told, which in itself is undermining the integrity of the Parliament because they expected it to rubber stamp what government had already decided to do,” said Banda.
But secretary to Treasury Patrick Chilambe brushed aside assertions that the government erred in procedure. He said that government has done this before.
“For us we see that there is nothing wrong, I mean what comes first is a question of academics. This is not the first time we are doing this, we did it with MDC (Malawi Development Corporation) we set up the company first and then we went to Parliament to repeal the act” he said on Tuesday.
Spokesperson for the Economic Association of Malawi (Ecama) Perks Ligoya described the bill as meaningless because the term commercialisation is not explained in the bill.
“The bill does not explain commercialisation as regards the legal aspects of changes, the social functions of Admarc and we ask government to come out clearly on how they are going to handle the social functions of Admarc,” Ligoya said.
He blamed the collapse of the company on mismanagement and incompetence and wondered how the new company will improve the performance if such problems are not addressed.
Explaining the term commercialisation, Chilambe said, the new Admarc is designed as commercial parastatal like Escom and Blantyre Water Board.
“We created the new company after government realised that it was spending too much on the Admarc and after examining the cause, we found out it was carrying out non social activities which were not commercially viable,” he said.
Chilambe confirmed that Ministry of Finance has 99 percent share in the company and the Admarc general manager 1 percent. He said that the share structure is standard structure for a government company.
“The share for Admarc general manager is just official as a point of contact and the point of accountability,” he said.,Legal experts have condemned the registration of Admarc as a limited company by government before Parliament repealed the act governing the corporation, saying that it is illegal and a sign of political dishonesty by the leadership.
Records at the Registrar of Companies in Blantyre show that government registered Admarc as a limited company on 19 November, 2003 with a capital injection of K1 million. Ministry of Finance has 99 percent shareholding while Admarc general manager has 1 percent.
Secretary of the Malawi Law Society Charles Mhango on Tuesday said that it was wrong and irregular for government to register a company before Parliament debated on the bill.
“The proposal in the bill was to commercialise Admarc and now if the bill fails again, it will mean that there are two entities existing under the same name of Admarc and one has to be deregistered as a remedy,” Mhango said.
Chancellor College Law Lecturer Edge Kanyongolo described the move as political dishonesty and duplicity of the highest order.
“My own view is that the registration of such a company is political dishonesty especially that there is a mass of people opposed to the bill,” he said.
Malawi Congress Party legal adviser Edwin Banda said that the registration of the company is an economic coup d’etat because Admarc already exists.
“They have already taken steps by setting up a company before Parliament is told, which in itself is undermining the integrity of the Parliament because they expected it to rubber stamp what government had already decided to do,” said Banda.
But secretary to Treasury Patrick Chilambe brushed aside assertions that the government erred in procedure. He said that government has done this before.
“For us we see that there is nothing wrong, I mean what comes first is a question of academics. This is not the first time we are doing this, we did it with MDC (Malawi Development Corporation) we set up the company first and then we went to Parliament to repeal the act” he said on Tuesday.
Spokesperson for the Economic Association of Malawi (Ecama) Perks Ligoya described the bill as meaningless because the term commercialisation is not explained in the bill.
“The bill does not explain commercialisation as regards the legal aspects of changes, the social functions of Admarc and we ask government to come out clearly on how they are going to handle the social functions of Admarc,” Ligoya said.
He blamed the collapse of the company on mismanagement and incompetence and wondered how the new company will improve the performance if such problems are not addressed.
Explaining the term commercialisation, Chilambe said, the new Admarc is designed as commercial parastatal like Escom and Blantyre Water Board.
“We created the new company after government realised that it was spending too much on the Admarc and after examining the cause, we found out it was carrying out non social activities which were not commercially viable,” he said.
Chilambe confirmed that Ministry of Finance has 99 percent share in the company and the Admarc general manager 1 percent. He said that the share structure is standard structure for a government company.
“The share for Admarc general manager is just official as a point of contact and the point of accountability,” he said.