The Office of the Ombudsman has bemoaned non compliance of its determinations by some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the country.

Ombudsman Grace Malera made the complaint Tuesday during an interface with the Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament In Lilongwe.

According to Malera, there are 242 cases which MDAs did not comply with directions which her office made.

She said: “Today as we closed the year 2021, we had 242 determinations from the Office of the Ombudsman that have not been complied with by MDAs that should be compared with 141 determinations of files that have since been resolved and complied with.”

“So that is a you know, a serious issue of non compliance,” said Malera.

Malera said the trend is worrisome and uncalled for citing Ministries of Education and Health as the high ranking ministries which did not comply with determinations of the Office.

“Prominent among the MDAs that have the high number of non compliance determinations would be the ministry of education.”

“We also have the Minister of Health. We also have the ministry or Department of Forestry because of the issues that surrounded the aspect of forests and the removal of employees,” said Malera.

Concurring with the Ombudsman’s concerns, the Committee said it will sapina the non complying controlling officers of responsible MDAs.

“As a committee, this is quite concerning and basically that’s why we say that as a Committee we will sapina all those MDAs that are failing to comply with the determinations of the Ombudsman.”

“Because you should understand that the Office of the Ombudsman is actually constitutional. It was established by section 20 of the Constitution,” said Peter Dimba who chairs the Committee.