PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Catholics miss out as Mutharika appoints Integrity Committee
Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has appointed a body to be called the National Integrity Committee (NIC)
to oversee the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy.
Conspicuously missing on the committee is Malawi's largest religious grouping, the Roman Catholic Church, whose relationship with the Mutharika
administration has of late soured considerably.
In a statement issued by the Office of the President and Cabinet, Mutharika said NIC would form a national forum where various stakeholders would
discuss the progress of the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy.
It will also review and analyse the public input into the fight against corruption and give proper guidance to the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
NIC will comprise Speaker of Parliament Henry Chimunthu Banda, President of the Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry Mathews
Chikankheni, the head of the Lutheran Church of Malawi, Bishop Dr. Joseph Bvumbwe who also chairs the Malawi Council of Churches, a grouping of
protestant churches, and the chairman of the Muslim Association of Malawi, Sheik Yusuf Kanyamula.
A representative of Senior Chief Kaomba of the central tobacco-growing district of Kasungu will also be part of the NIC.
Since Mutharika took over the reigns of power from his predecessor, Bakili Muluzi, the President has made 'zero tolerance on corruption' the central theme of
his administration.
He claims to have quit Muluzi's former ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) - which ironically sponsored his presidential bid after the former president
anointed him successor - because his hitherto political buddies frowned at his tough anti-corruption drive.
Former Director of Public Prosecution Ishmael Wadi is on record to have said at least US$100 million disappeared from government coffers during the 10 years
Muluzi was in power (between 1994 and 2004.)
Muluzi and senior former government officials, including former Finance Minister Friday Jumbe and his top aide Humphrey Mvula, are currently in and out of
courts answering to a myriad of fraud and corruption charges.
But the absence of representatives of the Catholic church in the NIC is not surprising, as there is no love lost between Malawi's largest religious grouping and the
Mutharika administration, following the recent publication by Catholic bishops of a pastoral letter that faulted government on governance issues.
President Mutharika, himself a church-going Catholic, reacted angrily to the epistle, accusing the church of pandering to opposition views.
Prior to the pastoral letter, entitled 'Reading the Signs of Times', Catholic priests dominated on governance bodies - including the elite National Advisory Council
and parastatal boards.
But since the frank assessment of his governance mis-steps, Mutharika has shunned all Catholic functions, including the consecration ceremony of a new bishop for
a new diocese in northern Malawi.
-0-PANA RT/SEG 16Dec2010
By Raphael Tenthani,
PANA Correspondent
to oversee the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy.
Conspicuously missing on the committee is Malawi's largest religious grouping, the Roman Catholic Church, whose relationship with the Mutharika
administration has of late soured considerably.
In a statement issued by the Office of the President and Cabinet, Mutharika said NIC would form a national forum where various stakeholders would
discuss the progress of the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy.
It will also review and analyse the public input into the fight against corruption and give proper guidance to the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
NIC will comprise Speaker of Parliament Henry Chimunthu Banda, President of the Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry Mathews
Chikankheni, the head of the Lutheran Church of Malawi, Bishop Dr. Joseph Bvumbwe who also chairs the Malawi Council of Churches, a grouping of
protestant churches, and the chairman of the Muslim Association of Malawi, Sheik Yusuf Kanyamula.
A representative of Senior Chief Kaomba of the central tobacco-growing district of Kasungu will also be part of the NIC.
Since Mutharika took over the reigns of power from his predecessor, Bakili Muluzi, the President has made 'zero tolerance on corruption' the central theme of
his administration.
He claims to have quit Muluzi's former ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) - which ironically sponsored his presidential bid after the former president
anointed him successor - because his hitherto political buddies frowned at his tough anti-corruption drive.
Former Director of Public Prosecution Ishmael Wadi is on record to have said at least US$100 million disappeared from government coffers during the 10 years
Muluzi was in power (between 1994 and 2004.)
Muluzi and senior former government officials, including former Finance Minister Friday Jumbe and his top aide Humphrey Mvula, are currently in and out of
courts answering to a myriad of fraud and corruption charges.
But the absence of representatives of the Catholic church in the NIC is not surprising, as there is no love lost between Malawi's largest religious grouping and the
Mutharika administration, following the recent publication by Catholic bishops of a pastoral letter that faulted government on governance issues.
President Mutharika, himself a church-going Catholic, reacted angrily to the epistle, accusing the church of pandering to opposition views.
Prior to the pastoral letter, entitled 'Reading the Signs of Times', Catholic priests dominated on governance bodies - including the elite National Advisory Council
and parastatal boards.
But since the frank assessment of his governance mis-steps, Mutharika has shunned all Catholic functions, including the consecration ceremony of a new bishop for
a new diocese in northern Malawi.
-0-PANA RT/SEG 16Dec2010
By Raphael Tenthani,
PANA Correspondent
