ATI Tabling Today

Malawi National Assembly is expected to debate the long awaited Access to Information Bill (ATI) today before the House rise Sine Die.

The debate on the ATI will be historical following years of waiting by many Malawians to see the bill going to parliament and debated. 

On Thursday evening before the house was adjourned for today, Francis Kasaila, Leader of House in the National Assembly made promise to the House that the business of today will prioritise the Access to Information bill together with other Land Bills.

Kasaila

“I thought I should just remind my honorable colleagues that tomorrow Government will prioritise the processing of other land bills… and there after bill number 1 of 2016 (Access to Information bill) ” 

Today, Friday, March 18th 2016 is the very last sitting day of the ongoing 2nd Meeting in the 46th Session of National Assembly and the next meeting will possibly be in May or June later this year. 

Similar promise was made on Wednesday by Kasaila in an interview after the House was adjourned early to allow members to prepare for tight business of Thursday. He indicated that since the House failed to meet for two sitting days as legislatures were mourning Mchinji West legislature, late Billy Kanjira, the business of the remaining two sitting days, Thursday and Friday will prioritise bills which among them is ATI bill.

But he did mention that most of the bills including the ATI will be passed during the Meeting of the National Assembly in May or June later this year. He explained that this is so because once the bills are introduced in the House today, will be required to go through relevant committees for thorough scrutiny and further consultations and after those committees reports back their findings to the House, then the process to debate and pass the bill will resume.

Other bills to be prioritized today are; Land Survey, Customary Land, Lands Acquisition and International Fund for Agricultural Development (Programme for Rural Irrigation Development) Loan (Authorisation).

Opposition Defeated On Amendment Motion On ACB Appointments

The National Assembly has voted ‘no’ to amend the Act on the powers to appointment the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director General and his Deputy from President to the National Assembly for the interest of the bureau's independence.

Lilongwe South West, Peter Chakhwantha presented a drafted amendment of Section 5 (1) of the Corrupt Practices Act in which he was proposing that the appointment of both the Director and Deputy Director of ACB be done by the Public Appointments Committee of Parliament based on merit and through an open recruitment process and that the Director be reporting and answerable to Parliament through the Public appointments Committee.

During the roll call vote to determine if the House adopts the amendment following divisions of votes, saw Government defeating opposition with 82 votes to 75 votes and there were 34 absentees.

“Honorable members, this means that we can not continue with other processes of the bill. Therefore, the bill Amendment has been defeated” announced Richard Msowoya Speaker of the National Assembly just after the mover, Chakhwantha reported that his motion has been shutdown

The drafted amendment came in the House today after the House some few weeks ago had adopted the amendment motion following  a victory of 75 to 67 votes by Opposition during the division to determine if the mover of the motion, Chakhwantha, should be allowed to wind up the motion and ask the House to adopt it.

But but this time around, the defeat has greatly disappointed the Opposition as Leader of Opposition reacted immediately the House was suspended for lunch break

Chakwera shaking hands with President Mutharika

“We thought we Malawians, will be the winners but we have been denied that” reacts Leader of Opposition Lazarus Chakwera in an interview further accusing Government of being “Chameleons” for changing their mind on fight against corruption as attested in this motion

While stating that their side does not consider this as a defeat, Chakwera said the battle will rage on with other motions and they will keep on fighting by bring more motions on various legislations in the House.

“They have been sitting on pieces of legislations that the Law Commission went around this country consulting and they do not want to bring it because they are afraid that the law will come after them but the long arm of the law will still come after them." He said

"It is not true that as a nation we should be telling Malawians this is what we will do if you vote for us and then when we are voted in, we decide to do the different. The reforms that they are championing have actually saying this is part of what they will do, and then to come back today and say we are not ready to do that, this country is not ready to fight corruption” said Chakwera

Lunguzi

Equally, Dedza East legislature, Juliana Lunguzi had expressed her disapointment in the House just after the motion was defeated 

“This being the House of records I want to register my disappointment that the country from the Government side has chosen to say yes to corruption” she lamented but this attracted boos from Government legislatures who also in their shouts, ordered her to resume her sit honorably

When tempers flared up following the boos, speaker, Richard Msowoya tried to put things to rest.

“The core processes of the bill has gone through, and as usual in any context one side wins the other side loses. And this has been the process if there was point in the process of the bill where you thought something procedurally went wrong you have the right to point it out but let’s not perpetrate this kind of discussion and scoring political points” said Msowoya

Throughout the general debate of the bill Government side continued to oppose the amendment of the section and it also defeated the Opposition by 76 to 73 votes during the division voting to determine if the House needed to curtail the debate to allow Chakhwantha to wind up the debate and propose that the House should adopt the drafted amendment bill.

Malawi National Assembly Consults “Green Knesset” On Environmental Friendly Tech

Malawi legislatures pose with Mr. Plot
(Third from left front row)

The Malawi National Assembly is consulting the Israel Parliament (Knesset), ‘Worlds Greenest Parliament’, to assist in establishment of efficient green technologies that would save huge sums of money used for some of its operations. 

Knesset is championing the environmental and sustainability project called “Green Knesset” which is attracting global attention as many countries are visiting Israel to learn how Knesset is saving water, paper and reducing energy consumption.

Mr. Plot (left) and Mr Chayen

A delegation led by Mr. Ronen Plot, Director General of the Knesset, and Dr. Samuel Chayen, Sustainability Coordinator for Green Knesset Project is in the country to educate its counterpart on how adopting ideas of Green Knesset Project may considerably save its annual operational costs.

Msowoya

Speaking on Wednesday at the opening of the workshop for the legislatures and head of departments on the Green Parliament and the Organization of Knesset, Speaker of the Malawi National Assembly, Richard Msowoya said considering the economic hardships and unfavorable climatic conditions the country is going through, there is need to consult Knesset on ways that Malawi Parliament can do to save some of its operational costs and conserve environment.

"At this time we need a good partner from whom we can learn a lot" said Msowoya

The Speaker said Malawi Parliament wants to reduce amount of energy, water and paper that it uses as well to transition from manual operation of other business to digital. He said transaction of daily business in the House requires more papers to print various documents including Order Paper and that it is time consuming to do 'roll call' voting during division. He therefore said Israel Parliament is the best in this area because of its well known ‘Green Knesset Project’ and can provide expertise to implement digital voting in the House.

“The first thing that we are looking at is establishing or moving towards creating our Parliament to be green. We are looking at very few items; one is the reduction of energy that we consume, second is to limit the amount of paperwork that we have in processing Parliamentary business." Explains Msowoya in an interview 

“And Israel has been voted one of the greenest Parliament in the World and the good thing about Malawi is that the Knesset is willing to work with us providing technical assistance for us to move to that direction.” He said 

Msoyowa expressed hope saying he is convinced that adopting the Green Knesset Project is a step in the right direction although the initial investment for implementation would seem to be huge.

"But over a period of time there are savings. What happens after that are savings and I think that is very important for us.” He said 

Davis Katsonga asking more about Green Knesset 

“I think as Malawians we have already seen that this environment is no longer a talk, it is real. Last year was voted one of the hottest year in the world, now, Malawians can see, we are in March and the temperatures that we are all experiencing are much higher than probably most of us have experienced before.  So the world is changing which means that we have to be paying more and more attention to the environment and doing things that protect the environment to bring it back to where it is friendly to human beings” explains Msowoya

Msowoya noted that after learning they will also seek Knesset expertise on developing strategy of how they can implement similar project.

“The most important thing is to develop something that we want to do, and once we develop we will convince those people with money it can be ministry of finance, well-wishers who can come on board and say look this is a good idea” he said

Mr. Plot

Director General of the Knesset, Mr. Ronen Plot, told the attendees in the workshop that Green Knesset Project is a very important for both savings on operational costs as well as environmental conservation.

He then assured that a similar Green Knesset in Malawi will bring a lot of benefits to the Malawi Parliament.

“You don’t have to be afraid in investing money because this is the project that you invest and after five years all the money returns. And once you implement this project you will become one of the advanced Parliament in Africa” he assured while adding that “We are coming here to lend you a hand” 

Mr. Plot said back home in 2014, Knesset started the “Green Knesset” Project with initial investment of US$ 1.7 million (NIS7 million) and the average returns from saving water and energy through solar systems is estimated at US$ 400 thousand (NIS 1.5 million) a year. He mentioned that Knesset uses 100% recycled paper, installed 4, 650 square meter solar array which has generating capacity of 450 killowatts and that the Knesset Committees serves water in pitchers instead of bottles which is preventing Knesset from generating 60 thousand plastic bottles a year.

Mr. Plot and Chayen

In an interview  Mr. Ronen Plot, said “We will start working together there is a lot of work to do and am happy to say that both sides want to cooperate  and from our point of view the sky is the limit.” He said, emphasizing “But, you don’t really need financial assistance since it this project that you invest money and the money comes back.” 

In the day there was also a signing of inter-parliamentary cooperation following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two Parliaments’ for cooperation.

The visiting Director General of the Knesset, Sustainability Coordinator for Green Knesset Project arrived on Tuesday and before conducting the workshop on Wednesday, he had Courtesy Call with the Right Honorable Richard Msowoya, Speaker of the Malawi National Assembly.

Mr. Plot with Lazarus Chakwera (Leader of
Opposition) 

Later in the day the delegation met with Clerk of Parliament, Fiona Kalemba and Management of Malawi National Assembly and toured some parts of Lilongwe town.

The delegation which is expected to leave the country on Friday will on Thursday have an Excursion in Salima district.

House To Debate ATI Bill Before Meeting Rise On Friday: House Adjourns Early To Allow Members Prepare For Bills

Leader of House in the National Assembly says the House will debate the Access to Information bill within the remaining two days sitting of this Meeting of the National Assembly.

Francis Kasaila made assurance in an interview on Wednesday evening after the House adjourned early to allow members to prepare for number of bills that are appearing on the Order Paper.

Kasaila said among the bills that are to be discussed on Thursday and Friday before the House rise sine die includes Access to Information bill which has been long awaited by the media and all Malawians.

“The bills are quite many, but also at the same time we have Access to Information bill” confirmed Kasaila

“All those we would want to process them and for sure most of them would be required to go through committees because that is where members would consult relevant stakeholders and get their views… and there after we will  have a consensus and proceed with the processing when we meet again around in May.”

He however, failed to divulge more if the bill will be the first item on the Government business on Thursday but has confirmed that between Thursday and Friday the bill will be among the list of Bills that will be presented in the House.

“It will come as I said between tomorrow and Friday, it may not be necessarily be second (after Land Bills) because it depends on whether the spokespersons will be ready tomorrow for that. We will try and bring in those that are ready quickly and bring those bills on the floor, deal with them and proceed” he said 

The National Assembly on Wednesday evening was adjourned early as the Leader of House wanted members to prepare for Fourteen bills that are appearing on order paper so that House adjourns sine die on Friday with more bills tackled.

“Honorable Deputy Speaker, since the House is rising this Friday I berg to move that the House adjourns early to allow members to prepare for the bills” moved Leader of House, Francis Kasaila 

Kasaila in his request to the Second Deputy Speaker, Clement Chiwaya, observed that there is a backlog of bills that needs to be tackled before the House rises on Friday. 

The business items of the House accumulated following two sitting days the House failed to meet as members went to attend the funeral of one of their legislatures from Mchinji. Kasaila defended the early adjournment saying for the sake of progress, it was necessary to allow members to prepare for the bills as programme for the next two days will be tight therefore members need to consult widely on the bills so that together with their party spokespersons they should participate.

Bills appearing on the order paper are

1. Electronic Transactions (Parliamentary Committee on Media, Information and Communications to present a Report on the Bill.)
2. Payment Systems (The Budget Committee in the day already presented a report on the bill)
3. Access to Information
4. Land bill
5. Physical Planning
6. Forestry (Amendment)
7. Malawi Housing Corporation (Amendment N.2)
8. Land Survey
9. Registered Land (Amendment)
10. Public Roads (Amendment)
11. Customary Land
12. Lands Acquisition
13. Local Government (Amendment)
14. International Fund for Agricultural Development (Programme for Rural Irrigation Development) Loan (Authorisation)

Chakwera Puts Question On Hold; Wants To Quiz President Mutharika In The House Face To Face

Govt. Says President Not Coming 

Chakwera shaking hands with Peter Mutharika

The Malawi Congress Party President and Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly on Wednesday said will wait for President Peter Mutharika to come in the House so he can ask and talk face to face on problems facing the country.

The Lilongwe North West legislature, Lazarus Chakwera, has put his question on hold and is appearing on Order Pater under Questions on notice to the President for Oral Replies under section 89 (4) of the Constitution of Malawi and Standing Order 70.

“We know that the President has busy schedules and could not come. I asked this question in order to engage the President in this House as prescribed by law since we always interact with Ministers, I therefore do not mind to wait until such a time as he is free to answer my question” Chakwera informed Deputy Speaker, Clement Chiwaya in the House followed by a very loud applause from opposition side

His question appearing on the order paper reads “To ask the President why there is seemingly lack of action when all the economic indicators- inflation, exchange rate, economic growth, etc are pointing in reverse direction. Leadership is doing nothing tangible, claiming it is everyone’s responsibility. Is this not abdicating your policy and its execution according to the Malawi Constitution, Articles 7 and 13 (e).

Chakwera reacted this way because President Peter Mutharika had delegated Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe as person fit to respond to the question.

Later in an interview, Chakwera maintained his stand he would rather wait to ask his question until such a time the Malawi President has time to come to the National Assembly to respond to his question.

He said his call for President to avail in the House was in accordance with laws that the president is a member of parliament. 

“So our desire has been to meet the president on matters of national importance. When we were informed that he is not able to come and has delegated which is in accordance with his powers, I for one decided that I would rather have him come because they would be follow up questions that ministers would not necessarily deal with when such questions are posed to the president.” Said Chakwera who reiterated that he wants to meet and interact with the president in the House

Kasaila; Chakwera question is general 

Leader of House, Francis Kasaila in an interview explained that Chakwera question is not related to Presidents’ own statement made in the House and therefore does not fall in category of questions that necessitate President to respond by himself. But he said in this case the law accepts that the President should delegate the minister. 

“The President had used his prerogative to delegate the Minister of Finance to respond to the question relating to Finance” indicates Kasaila

Mutharika has not addressed thr House recently 

“It is a general question” he said referring to the question made by Chakwera, then explains “The President has not addressed the House recently, and therefore according to the law, he can only come and respond to the question himself when that question is emanating from his own speech. That is what the law is saying. And therefore there is nothing irregular, and the questions that we have are all specific to relevant ministries and the President decided that the ministers should be able to answer those questions.” Explains Kasaila

When asked if he simply means the President is not coming in the House to respond his reply was “For this questions yes”

There are four questions in total that are posed to the President but will be answered by the Minister if the President will not come.

Leader of House also interrupted the Deputy Speaker, Clement Chiwaya and directed him not to continue with Questions on notice to the President as the Business Committee had agreed only to respond to Chakwera’s question on Wednesday.

“The agreement was, today we will respond to the question from the Leader of Opposition and on Friday (respond to other three questions), because the minister who has been delegated to respond to those is not in the Chamber. That was the agreement in the Business Committee” he said

Below are other three questions waiting for President Peter Mutharika’s response through delegated minister

1. Honorable Khumbo Kachali, Mzimba South-West legislature “To ask the President to explain what Government is doing about the critical shortage and unavailability of maize stocks in most ADMARC Depots and markets across the country, which has resulted in people walking a long distances for them to reach the ADMARC Markets in order to buy maize. For example, Mjinge, Edingeni, Mquocha, and Kapolo, just to mention a few in Mzimba South-West Constituency are located at a radius of about 40 kilometres away from the main ADMARC Depots at Mzimba Boma where unfortunately they spend days and nights without getting maize, inspite of assurances from the Ministry of Agriculture officials that maize would be made available, the problem still exists.”
2. Hon Kamlepo Kaua of Rumphi East “To ask the President to explain to the Nation, through this House about the food situation in this country.”
3. Nkhota-Kota South East legislature, Hon E.A Makowa also wanted to ask “To ask the President why as a nation we seem not to be making progress on identifying a new crop or crops to replace tobacco as our main cash crop. Demand for tobacco products nationally and internationally is on the decline due to the massive international campaign that is being waged against the crop on health grounds and, therefore, our reliance o tobacco as a cash crop is doomed. What plans, strategies and time frame does the State President have to fast track process?”

Govt Commends JTI Leaf For Launching Food Aid Initiative Targeting 3, 500 Households

Allan Chiyembekeza, Fries Vanneste
Handing ovet maize to beneficiary 

Malawi Government hails one of the leading tobacco buying company, JTI for coming up with food humanitarian response program targeting 3, 3500 households across the country. 

Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, Alllan Chiyembekeza commended the JTI on Wednesday when launching the initiative at Namitete in the area of Traditional Authority Kalolo in Lilongwe.

Beneficiaries from T/A Kalolo

For a period of three months, JTI Drought Relief Program will involve distribution of food ratios to tobacco growers and their dependants even other families who are not in tobacco farming.

Allan Chiyembekeza

Allan Chiyembekeza said this is a welcome idea at this time when up to 3 million Malawians are experiencing hunger due to droughts and floods.

“Well it’s a very welcome idea, remember we have been talking that we are in a crisis, so many people need food and I don’t think Government alone can manage, this is why JTI decided to came forward to assist government on one side to assist by distributing this food to their farmers.’’ Said Chiyembekeza

An old woman, Magene Chisenga from Lemwe village got her first ration at the launch and could not hide her excitement “Am very happy to receive this food.’’

‘’This is like a dream, our eating pattern changed; we would eat today and go without food the next day so the life has been like that, for so many days I and my five grand children have been going to bed without food.” Narrates Chisenga, and continued ‘‘We never knew where we are going to get food but now I know that this night we are going to eat and I am assured that we will eat for the next three months.”

Fries Vanneste 

Speaking at the launch, Managing Director for JTI, Fries Vanneste said their humanitarian response comes after the company’s leaf technicians had made a national wide assessment of the severity of the drought and food situation in communities where JTI buy its tobacco.

“The reason to embark on this project is our contractual relationship we have with the farmers called pure IPS. IPS is not only looking after contracts with the farmer just to buy the tobacco but also looking further on the interests and their wellbeing as farmers and their families.” Said Vanneste

He mentioned that the estimated target of 3, 500 households translates to 24 thousand people beneficiaries who includes the elderly, widows, single-headed families and youths.

According to Vanneste, every month, every household will get one 50kg bag of maize, one 10kg bag of beans and 2 litres of vegetable oil. He also indicated that the project will cost about US$310, 000, involving total of 525 tons of maize and 105 tons of beans.

Up to 89,203 households are estimated to be in hunger in Lilongwe district alone, according to Lilongwe district Principal Administration Officer, Mariette Kadewere. Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee report of 2015 indicated that over 2.8 million Malawians requires humanitarian response following adverse weather conditions that the country experienced in early 2015, which resulted in declining production of maize and other food crops across the country.

Committee Of Supply Kick-Starts With Objections; Two Votes Deferred

The National Assembly begins Committee of Supply today with intense questioning over the Minister of Finance justifications on increments and reductions made to some Government ministries and departments.

At the very start, the Opposition members steered a lengthy debated with the Finance Minister, Goodall Gondwe on State Residences vote allocated with Five Hundred Billion and Ten Million Kwacha (K5, 010, 599, 320), from approved provision of Five Billion Four Hundred and Fourteen million Kwacha (K5, 414, 254, 201). 

Legislatures quizzed on the allocation of K110 million in the vote for the project of the construction of State Banquet in the face of economic problems but Finance Minister said the project has been shelved.

However, Gondwe was forced to defer the vote promising the House to bring more information after other members indicated that it appears Government wants to continue with the project as there is an allocation for that project.

Another vote, Office of the President and Cabinet was deferred for more explanations after the house had spent more than 30 minutes debating on it. 

The vote allocation has seen an increment of more than K3 Billion (allocated with K9, 720, 345, 944 from approved provision of K6, 595, 724, 601). 

Salima North, Jessie Kabwila, Rumphi East, Kamlepo Kalua among other legislatures inquired for more detailed explanation why there was such increment yet Malawi is going through hard times.

Others mentioned that the allocation was suspicious as there were no breakdowns of how the funds will be used while others described the allocation as another form of theft of public money by the office.

The House is considering and passing vote by vote of the revised budgetary allocation whose sum is now K902 Billion (Nine Hundred and Two Billion, Three Hundred Million and Fifty-One Thousand, One Hundred and Sixty-Eight Kwacha) from approved allocation of K929.7 billion 

Initially, the Minister announced that the revised budget will be reduced by K23 billion but now the reduction is by K20 billion. Finance Minister said K3 billion has been put back following member’s request not to reduce the provisions for Public Universities.

There are a total of 50 votes but today the house has only passed a total of 3 votes after the Leader of House, Francis Kasaila had asked the Chairperson to suspend the Committee of Supply following the disagreements in the House.

Gondwe being led into chamber (photo 2015)

The Committee of Supply began just after the Minister of Finance made his winding up speech on the Budget Review statement made two weeks ago.

Gondwe informed the House that Government proposal to reduce the budget was significant for the country to achieve a budget that which its recurrent expenditure is covered by domestic revenues.

“We propose that a start should be made now when the estimated tax is “soft” and the estimated grants whose increase is due to the depreciation of the Kwacha, are in fact even “softer”. Therefore to avoid excessive borrowing than planned, we have to cut the expenditure. 

Mr. Speaker Sir, the house and the country should pose and digest that we may no longer appeal to donors for extra budgetary support to fund unforeseen deficits, means that we have the luxury of inflating our public expenditure with less priority expenses.” Said Gondwe, further expressing wish for future budget that entail survey of ways and means of mobilising more domestic revenues and the cutting of less priority expenditures so as to avoid domestic borrowing

“The arguments that were made that reducing the budgetary expenditure will reduce public welfare is misplaced because excessive domestic borrowing will have even prolonged negative impact of on welfare of the people. As a matter of policy we will have to mitigate our reliance on borrowing from our banks and should no longer be deem banks as quasi fiscal agents.” He added