Chairperson of the Parliamentary Cluster on Natural Resources and Agriculture Welani Chilenga says he is worried with failure by the Malawi Environmental Protection Authority (Mepa) to implement its core objectives.

Mepa, a public institution mandated to oversee environmental management activities, is said to be dominant years after its establishment, a development the Cluster describes as detrimental in fight against environmental mismanagement.

For instance, Chilenga points out the vacancies in key positions at Mepa as factors leading to its failure to carry out its mandated functions.

“The challenge that is there is that there only have a Board, they don’t have the Secretariat or those who are on those positions are working on secondment capacity,” Chilenga said.

“So we have urged them that by doing that they are depriving other people of employment.”

In his response, Director of Administration in the Ministry of Forestry and Natural Resources Hillary Namainja said government will soon work on filling the vacant positions.

“The only thing that we are working on is the operationalisation of the Authority we need to recruit staff, and there are processes that are carried out by government,” Namainja said.

“I can safely say that the Board will be meeting in the next week also and once that has been done, and thereafter you will see recruitment process is taking place.”

The Chairperson has also called upon the Authority to deliver its mandated objectives citing that there are many environmental-related problems currently affecting the nation which need their urgent attention.

Mepa was established through an Environment Management Act of 2017.

The Act looks at the conservation and management of the environment in Malawi and prescribes environmental standards. It also discusses the conservation and management of biological resources.