Chairperson of the Parliamentary Public Appointments Committee (PAC) Joyce Chitsulo has defended the Committee`s move on rejecting the newly appointed Martha Chizuma as Director General of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
Chitsulo has told Yoneco FM that much as the Committee seems to have acted contrary to public expectation, the resolution of rejecting Chizuma has been made as a Committee not individual lawmakers.
According to the PAC Chairperson, each committee member had an opportunity to rate Chizuma`s candidacy.
“It`s very unfortunate some members have decided to do that and let me stress here they are doing as individuals not a committee, our committee as of today had eighteen members five from the DPP and thirteen from the Tonse.
“So, it’s very surprising that if you look at the numbers, they have decided to hold that I don’t know for what reason but honestly, it’s a committee which makes the decision and they are part of the decision which has been made today,” clarified Chitsulo.
But addressing journalists after interviewing Chizuma, government side lawmakers who belong to the Committee have suspected foul play and have since called impeachment of Chitsulo accusing her of lacking integrity.
“We are all shocked because honestly she scored very well, she was very impressive she has a very impressive CV and she is somebody that we need as a country to fight corruption.
“So as government Members of Parliament (MPs) we suspect foul play and we question the integrity of the chair because when we asked her to change she didn’t want to so we saying as members from the government side in the Committee we want to impeach her because she has demonstrated lack of integrity in the matter,” said Peter Dimba, one of the government MPs who belong to the committee.
In a dramatic twist of events, the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has organized demonstrations slated for Tuesday next week in a bit to express their anger over Chizuma`s rejection.
The Coalition has also disclosed that it is considering of dragging the matter to Court.
“We are going to have a march to parliament to show our disappointment with a petition, as HRDC we are not only looking at the demonstrations, we have also instructed our lawyers to look at possible court intervention on the matter,” said Gift Trapence, HRDC chairperson.
In an earlier interview after being interviewed by the Committee, Chizuma pledged that she is ready to lead ACB to the extent of making Malawians uncomfortable with corruption.
“Whenever they make their decision and I actually go to ACB, I am hoping that three years from now those parliamentarians and everyone who has been involved in my recruitment will be able to say we did the right thing.
“I want to put the Bureau on a very strong foundation and institutional structure and trying to get back the money where the cases are very clear that we can get back the money and feel Malawians uncomfortable with corruption,” said Chizuma.
