{"id":20904,"date":"2022-04-19T23:00:32","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T23:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/how-government-spits-at-peoples-office"},"modified":"2022-04-19T23:12:22","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T23:12:22","slug":"how-government-spits-at-peoples-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/how-government-spits-at-peoples-office","title":{"rendered":"How government spits at people\u2019s office"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. <\/strong><\/span>Call it arrogance on the part of the government and its ministries! And danger to Malawi\u2019s democracy even. If there is one governance institution that is active in handling issues of people\u2019s concerns, it is the Office of the Ombudsman. But, because of the way it was established, it does not have the mandate to enforce its own determinations.<\/p>\n

Our democracy set it up in state structure so that it acts as police man, sort of, to the government, picking out issues, as brought to it by the people or on its own initiative, and laying them down before government and its agencies t for it to act.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the Ombudsman has made defining determinations \u2013 all with the intention to put Malawi\u2019s democracy where it should be \u2013 a service to the people.<\/p>\n

But government and its departments are treating the Ombudsman as an also-run in the democratic space of the country, spiting in its face by not complying with its determinations. Now those determinations not complied with stand at 214, some of them dating as far back as 22 years ago.<\/p>\n

And the Ombudsman is disappointed, describing government\u2019s non-compliance with its determinations as one of the setbacks it continues to face in its quest of correcting maladministration in the country\u2019s public sector.<\/p>\n

Ombudsman Grace Malera told The Sunday Times Saturday the non-compliance of government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) with its determinations is in the long run denying justice to the hundreds of aggrieved parties that suffered injustice at the hands of public offices and officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently, about 241 determinations are not complied with as of December 2021, and some of these date to as far back as the year 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is due to lack of cooperation by the MDAs and disregard of the applicable laws,\u201d Malera said.<\/p>\n

Apart from limited understanding of the mandate of the Office of the Ombudsman on the part of some public officers, Malera also complained of weak legislation which does not give her office enforcement powers over its directives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has led to delays and backlog of unresolved complaints thereby denying access to justice by aggrieved parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother critical challenge is administrative inefficiencies in the public service when it comes to records keeping and management,\u201d she said. Malera said during investigations they usually face lack of supporting documents to process remedial measures for concerned complainants.<\/p>\n

She however said through the Public Sector Reforms her office has commenced processes for the amendment of the Ombudsman Act, in order to strengthen their mandate and operations.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the matter, governance analyst Ernest Thindwa corroborated Malera on the lack of enforcement mechanisms for the office of the Ombudsman, further accusing Parliament of failure to act on non-complying institutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic institutions are relaxing simply because Parliament has not exercised its authority in terms of ensuring that the office of the Ombudsman\u2019s determinations are enforced.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet Parliament play its role of ensuring that such authorities are brought to book,\u201d Thindwa said.<\/p>\n

But Chairperson of the Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament Peter Dimba said yesterday that his committee is aware of the problem and that they will soon be summoning concerned controlling officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we meet as a Committee we will subpoena those controlling officers who have high rates of non-compliance so that they explain to the Committee why they have no regard to the determinations of the Ombudsman and undermine the Constitution which established the office of the Ombudsman and its mandate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Section 127 of the Malawi Constitution states that at the elapse of 90 days after a determination is given by the Ombudsman, a non-complying institution should be reported to Parliament through the Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Malawi<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. Call it arrogance on the part of the government and its ministries! And danger to Malawi\u2019s democracy even. If there is one governance institution that is active in handling issues of people\u2019s concerns, it is the Office of the Ombudsman. But, because of the way it was established, it does not have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":20903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12],"tags":[233,371,234,610,725,163],"class_list":["post-20904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-malawi","tag-malawi-government","tag-ombudsman","tag-parliament"],"yoast_head":"\nHow government spits at people\u2019s office - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Call it arrogance on the part of the government and its ministries! And danger to Malawi\u2019s democracy even. 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