By Linda Kwanjana – Busines Editor
Economic expert , scholar and Public policy analyst, Dr Ben Dzolowere has faulted Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) for contradicting themselves on the role of Ministry of Finance ,economic Planning and Decentralization on the Amaryllis Hotel deal.
Dr Ben Dzolowere says HRDC has been saying the Public Pension fund Trust operates autonomously while the same committee drags Ministry of Finance into the issues.
According to the laws of Malawi, Pension which I will site, below, Ministry of Finance is never involved and should never get involved. So we wonder why this HRDC kept on contradicting itself during their press conference.
Accorsing to Dzolowere, Public Pension fund Trust is an autonomous entity with own board of trustees, management, bank accounts.
He says , the Fund’s resources are managed by independent Fund Managers and that Fund’s investments and related decisions are done through the Board of Trustees and independent investment managers.
He says , according to section 60 of the Pension Act 2023, Fund rules of the pension fund do not permit a trustee to be subject to any direction or order by any other person in exercise of the trustee’s power in relation to the fund.
According to the laws of Malawi, any person who improperly or unduly seeks to influence a trustee in the performance of the functions of the trustee, commits an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine of K100 million or to imprisonment of ten years.
In this case, the ministry of finance was not involved in the decision making and payment of the Amaryllis hotel and there is no evidence to that effect.
According to Dzolowere , who has been followiing this issue , RBM governor also said the same during the interview with the enquiry team.
