Malawi Catholic Church join chorus calling for Goodall, Nankhumwa to resign: Slams K4bn give-away
The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), an arm of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), has added its voice to calls demanding the immediate resignation of Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe and Local Government Minister Kondwani Nankhumwa for their role to arrange K4 billion ‘budget by-pass’ fund to legislators.
The CCJP has since slamed government misallocation of public funds to 86 Members of Parliament as a way of allegedly thanking them for shooting down the Electoral Reforms Bills, and called for “servant leadership” in the country .
In a statement made available to Nyasa Times, CCJP said ‘this misallocation and wanton sharing of tax payers’ money at a time the National Budget is constrained and cannot perform properly, is both unethical and immoral.’
The statement was signed by CCJP National Office, CCJP Archdiocese of Blantyre, CCJP Archdiocese of Lilongwe, CCJP Dedza, CCJP Mzuzu, CCJP Karonga, CCJP Mangochi, CCJP Zomba and CCJP Chikwawa.
It was released following a meeting by the National and Diocesan Coordinators of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) on March 7 2018 at Eber House in the Archdiocese of Blantyre for CCJP Coordinators’ Ordinary Meeting.
“It raises a lot of questions on the integrity and commitment to good governance by the current regime,” it reads adding that “We are appalled by Parliament’s sin of cooperation in supporting illegality and impunity disregarding its constitutional obligation of providing oversight over the Executive arm of the Government.”
CCJP said it is unethical to spend huge sumexpenditure without knowing the source, conditions attached and subsequent approval of Parliament.
“This is a clear portrayal of total mismanagement of public funds and evidence of a leadership that is corrupt and lacks integrity,” reads the statement in part.
The Catholic Church has also renewed calls for the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to investigate the matter.
“We join all who call for the Anti-Corruption Bureau to thoroughly investigate and clear the mist regarding the source of the funds as well as the criteria that was used by the concerned Ministers to select the 86 members of Parliament earmarked for the expenditure of the funds.
“As CCJP, we strongly denounce this act of the Executive for initiating this unpleasant expenditure and Parliament for legalizing an illegal expenditure,” reads part of the statement.
Gondwe insisted the money was from taxes, grants and borrowing and was saved from re-adjustments of the 2017/18 budget that saw cuts to the development budget.
Minister of Local Government and Rural Development KondwaniNankhumwa could not immediately comment on the call by the influential church to resign.
But University of Livingstonia (Unilia) political analyst George Phiri has said the ideal situation would be for President Mutharika to fire Gondwe and Nankhumwa.
Another political commentator from Chancellor College Ernest Thindwa said while the call is necessary, the feasibility of Gondwe resigning is doubtful, arguing Malawi is a society where voluntary resignation is not practised.
The religious grouping did not spare the opposition members of parliament who at first, condemned the practice but later joined in to share the proceeds of dubious funding.
“We further condemn the greedy traits Opposition members of Parliament have displayed to the Nation by supporting illegality and impunity simply because they were included on the list of beneficiaries,” reads the statement.
Capital Hill has argued that the money, termed quick grant project, is meant for rural development.
At first, the money was reportedly earmarked for only 86 constituencies belonging to the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators and those who supported the quashing of the Electoral Reforms Bills in Parliament last December. Each constituency was earmarked to receive K40 million.
But after Malawi News reported the issue and debate ensued, Nankhumwa, as Leader of the House, said the money would be distributed equally among the 193 constituencies, with each constituency receiving K20 million.
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My good friend Bushiri, you have a wrong person for the presidency. Chakwera is very inexperienced for any meaningful leadership role. Justin Dzonzi was right when he described MCP and its leadership as being neive about the operation of parliament. There are veterans in parliament from the MCP side but because of their outdated four corners stones they have allowed themselves to be misled by the inexperienced Chakwera. Think of Njobvuyalema, Dzoole Mwale and others are very experienced parliamentarians but are being led by a blind leader. MCP need Lewis Chimango to function to people’s expectations osati mwatengazo!!!!
This issue was deliberated in parliament and the august house with the guidance of the leader of opposition passed it. The comments alluding to DPP representatives as thieves are unfortunate. Our leaders in all institutions are Malawians. It would be wise to say malawians are thieves, it is Malawi as a whole that is rotten. If Chakwera and his MPs were upright regarding this issue they would not have passed this bill. CCJP should fault all parliametarians. CCJP does not represent us in the august house it is the parliametarians and let all the MPs become responsible on this issue.… Read more »
@ BTN
A point of correction. It’s actually DPP that is made up of thieves. To insinuate that Malawians are thieves is honestly an insult to us hard working but suffering Malawians. Wamva mbuzi iwe.. Kupusa
This sounds very good, we Malawians, let’s stand up for our rights, right to national development, by joining hands and give an ultimatum to these two irresponsible ministers to resign after seven days from today, otherwise let us all go to the state house(State President) to present our petition led by PAC if they don’t resign voluntarily. This is our tax payers money and this is our country, the Warm Heart of Africa. We need action, and the time is now.
How many ultimatums have you presented to DPP? How many petitions have you presented to DPP? How many demos have you conducted and what outcomes have you achieved so far? MCP hiding under wings of churches and CSOs thinking they can capitalise as they know 2019 they can’t remove APM from driving seat!
Ask Kamuzu and Bakili Muluzi they will tell you that when Malawians are tired they do not get bored with useless tactics to stop them……………. & keep on fighting till they make you out of the high office………..!!
Mungoti pheeeeeeeeeeee muoneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!
The Herold way of justice. Because Herold, the Roman ruler of that time, feared the boy Jesus, plotted to kill him. In the process he killed so many innocent baby boys of the time. I would have expected CCJP to vent their anger on the leader of opposition who attempted to disassociate himself with transaction the Yudas Iscariot way. After realizing that he wrongly betrayed Jesus to the Romans, Yudas Iscariot went back to the high priests to disassociate himself with the plot. Did it work? Did the high priests accept their money back? It is only the CCJP of… Read more »
Ignorance at its best.
Never seen rational thinking from one Omex70. You mean you can’t see the logic in Hatton’s argument?
When I read some of the comments that are pro – government I can see that we are really in big trouble. How can someone support a government that was elected by him/herself when it is mismanaging his/her hard earned taxes? Are we people real? How can someone support a government move that the minister himself can not explain? Koma ngati kuli kukonda chipani ndiye zafika pena pake. Amene anatilodza aMalawi, ndi munthu woophya kwambiri. Tingomusiira Mulungu basi. Sob! sob! sob! sob!…..
All these are doctored and engineered by Nankhumwa the destroyer of MBC,MACRA and DPP.
Why keeping him Mr. Presedent?Mr Goodall munayamba bodza mungamamvere mwana zinthu zoonekeratu kuti zikuyikani mmavuto mukapsa kwa mulungu nthawi yotha itha.CHONDE LAPANI mwazuzitsa amalawi osalakwa koma zindikirani kuti mulungu akakulangani mosakumverani chisoni chifukwa mwachita zazikulu pamoyo wanu chonde lapani lapani
These DPP thieves think they can do anything with our taxes without being questioned, getting rich in very short time……. but this time, no!! Gondwe & Nankhumwa MUST go, atiwonjeza, zikutiwawa or we will demonstrate, let’s join hands Malawians, DPP is taking us for granted, taking us as their tenants.
God forbid!!!My prayer is simple. Whether it is out of anger or what, I pray for change of GVT in 2019. That’s my wish no compromise. Don’t take tax payers money and having more illiterate people a thing to play crooked ways. Can’t these so called learned people sympathize with the poor who vote for them due to ignorance and poverty, even when they no how crooked they are, because of being provided with a MK1,000.00 to share among many in rallies.It’s a shame!!!very shame indeed!!!
mbava nkhanga zaona imagine they ve managed to shield Chaponda and dont expect anything to come out other counties pple would ve gone on demostrations
@Mchape, I entirely agree with you. AMalawi tulo basi!!! Tidzingodandaula tiri kuzipinda kwathu pamene mbavazi zingotibela. And then come May 2019, we will elect the same thieves to lead our country so that they can continue stealing our hard-earned taxes. Cry my beloved Malawi!!
point 4 should read ………..CCJP have not given the criteria they used to choose………….
CCJP should register as a new political party and not as a group representing our good Catholic church. Who are these CCJP members. And where do they come from. Who elected them. Those are the views of that team and not Catholic church. As a church we are apolitical
kaka,Iweso mbava eti? iwe chilungamo sukuchiona apa?