A report too hot to table?

The Amaryllis Hotel saga is beginning to look less like an ordinary parliamentary inquiry and more like a carefully choreographed exercise in making an inconvenient truth disappear into the corridors of Parliament. The Public Accounts Committee (Pac) pursued the controversial K128 billion purchase of the hotel by the Public Service Pension Trust Fund (PSPTF) with an intensity that suggested Malawians would finally get answers to the many questions surrounding the transaction. But just when the public expected the committee to present its findings, the passion appears to have evaporated. The report is nowhere to be seen. Speaker Sameer Suleman had already made it clear that Pac had the green light to conclude the inquiry and table its report without the testimony of former Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba, who repeatedly failed to appear before the committee. So, what, exactly, is holding up the report? That is the question that should concern every Malawian. What makes the situation even more troubling is the apparent change in posture from Pac itself. This is the same committee that initially pursued the inquiry despite obstacles. It was the same committee that pressed for answers over a transaction involving billions of kwacha belonging to public-sector pensioners. Yet today, when the report should be before Parliament, there appears to be a strange reluctance. Pac chairperson Steven Malondera has declined to explain why the report has not been concluded and tabled. As a citizen, he said, he wanted Malawians to see its contents. That sounds reassuring. But it is difficult to reconcile those words with the silence surrounding the report. If Pac genuinely wants Malawians to see its findings, why has it taken this long to adopt and submit the report when the Speaker had already cleared the way? Why does an inquiry that was important enough to consume weeks of parliamentary time suddenly appear to have lost its urgency at the very moment the public is waiting for its conclusion? There is a long and unfortunate history in Malawi of important matters being buried under procedural excuses until public interest dies down. Parliamentary oversight is particularly vulnerable to this culture because Parliament has enormous power to determine what gets debated, what gets delayed and what disappears quietly from public attention. Malawians have also heard allegations over the years of MPs being induced to support particular decisions, including controversial legislation, while others have allegedly been encouraged to stay away from proceedings when their presence could affect the outcome of a vote. These are serious allegations and should not be treated as proven facts without evidence. But their persistence tells us something about the public's distrust of the political system. That distrust becomes especially relevant when a report involving billions of kwacha in public pension money appears to be caught in a fog of uncertainty. The disturbing possibility is that the system may once again be relying on delay as a weapon. Delay creates fatigue. Fatigue creates indifference. Indifference creates the perfect environment for uncomfortable matters to die quietly. And if that is what is happening with the Amaryllis report, then the public is being robbed twice: first through the questions surrounding the transaction itself and secondly through the failure to provide answers about what Parliament's own investigation discovered. The public does not need Parliament to protect it from the contents of the report. It needs Parliament to protect the public interest by making the report available. If the inquiry found nothing wrong, let Malawians know. If it found procedural failures, let Malawians know. If it uncovered abuse of office, conflicts of interest, financial irregularities or other wrongdoing, let the relevant authorities act. That is precisely why parliamentary committees exist. There is also something profoundly unfair about keeping pensioners in the dark. This is their money. It is money accumulated from years of service and contributions, not some private fortune that Parliament can discuss at its convenience. The hotel purchase therefore deserves more than political theatre. It deserves transparency. The Speaker appears to have cleared the obstacle that Pac previously cited. Zamba did not appear. The committee was told it could proceed without her. The excuse has therefore been removed. What remains is the report. And yet the report remains missing. That is why the growing mist around this matter is so disturbing. The longer the report stays away from Parliament, the more room there is for speculation that powerful interests would rather its contents remained unseen. Perhaps the report is damning. Perhaps it clears everyone. Perhaps it contains findings that embarrass people who would prefer to remain out of the spotlight. We simply do not know. And that is the scandal. A parliamentary inquiry was launched to establish the truth. Weeks later, the truth appears to be the one thing Malawians are still being denied. Parliament was never supposed to be a shelter for uncomfortable truths.

Times Malawi Times Malawi · Wire Report · 13 hours ago · 5 min read

Image via wire syndication · Times Malawi

WIRE — The Amaryllis Hotel saga is beginning to look less like an ordinary parliamentary inquiry and more like a carefully choreographed exercise in making an inconvenient truth disappear into the corridors of Parliament. The Public Accounts Committee (Pac) pursued the controversial K128 billion purchase of the hotel by the Public Service Pension Trust Fund (PSPTF) with an intensity that suggested Malawians would finally get answers to the many questions surrounding the transaction. But just when the public expected the committee to present its findings, the passion appears to have evaporated. The report is nowhere to be seen. Speaker Sameer Suleman had already made it clear that Pac had the green light to conclude the inquiry and table its report without the testimony of former Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba, who repeatedly failed to appear before the committee. So, what, exactly, is holding up the report? That is the question that should concern every Malawian. What makes the situation even more troubling is the apparent change in posture from Pac itself. This is the same committee that initially pursued the inquiry despite obstacles. It was the same committee that pressed for answers over a transaction involving billions of kwacha belonging to public-sector pensioners. Yet today, when the report should be before Parliament, there appears to be a strange reluctance. Pac chairperson Steven Malondera has declined to explain why the report has not been concluded and tabled. As a citizen, he said, he wanted Malawians to see its contents. That sounds reassuring. But it is difficult to reconcile those words with the silence surrounding the report. If Pac genuinely wants Malawians to see its findings, why has it taken this long to adopt and submit the report when the Speaker had already cleared the way? Why does an inquiry that was important enough to consume weeks of parliamentary time suddenly appear to have lost its urgency at the very moment the public is waiting for its conclusion? There is a long and unfortunate history in Malawi of important matters being buried under procedural excuses until public interest dies down. Parliamentary oversight is particularly vulnerable to this culture because Parliament has enormous power to determine what gets debated, what gets delayed and what disappears quietly from public attention. Malawians have also heard allegations over the years of MPs being induced to support particular decisions, including controversial legislation, while others have allegedly been encouraged to stay away from proceedings when their presence could affect the outcome of a vote. These are serious allegations and should not be treated as proven facts without evidence. But their persistence tells us something about the public's distrust of the political system. That distrust becomes especially relevant when a report involving billions of kwacha in public pension money appears to be caught in a fog of uncertainty. The disturbing possibility is that the system may once again be relying on delay as a weapon. Delay creates fatigue. Fatigue creates indifference. Indifference creates the perfect environment for uncomfortable matters to die quietly. And if that is what is happening with the Amaryllis report, then the public is being robbed twice: first through the questions surrounding the transaction itself and secondly through the failure to provide answers about what Parliament's own investigation discovered. The public does not need Parliament to protect it from the contents of the report. It needs Parliament to protect the public interest by making the report available. If the inquiry found nothing wrong, let Malawians know. If it found procedural failures, let Malawians know. If it uncovered abuse of office, conflicts of interest, financial irregularities or other wrongdoing, let the relevant authorities act. That is precisely why parliamentary committees exist. There is also something profoundly unfair about keeping pensioners in the dark. This is their money. It is money accumulated from years of service and contributions, not some private fortune that Parliament can discuss at its convenience. The hotel purchase therefore deserves more than political theatre. It deserves transparency. The Speaker appears to have cleared the obstacle that Pac previously cited. Zamba did not appear. The committee was told it could proceed without her. The excuse has therefore been removed. What remains is the report. And yet the report remains missing. That is why the growing mist around this matter is so disturbing. The longer the report stays away from Parliament, the more room there is for speculation that powerful interests would rather its contents remained unseen. Perhaps the report is damning. Perhaps it clears everyone. Perhaps it contains findings that embarrass people who would prefer to remain out of the spotlight. We simply do not know. And that is the scandal. A parliamentary inquiry was launched to establish the truth. Weeks later, the truth appears to be the one thing Malawians are still being denied. Parliament was never supposed to be a shelter for uncomfortable truths.

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