Evaluation of public officials as done by The Sunday Times annually through their Cabinet Assessment project is normal and appropriate in any democracy where citizens are expected to express themselves freely and hold their leaders accountable.
And you don’t necessarily need experts to assess public officials, let alone cabinet ministers, as they are in those offices to serve the people and it is everybody’s right to speak out on how they feel about those serving them.
While on the issue of assessing our leaders, let me provide my own special feedback on the performance of one cabinet minister.
I have known Joseph Mwanamvekha since the early 2000s while he was CEO of Continental Discount House (CDH) and I have always respected him as an astute banker and financial expert.
He was very media friendly and managed to make the CDH brand well known through regular appearance in the media. As a young journalist still learning the art of the job especially in business journalism, I learned a lot of economic and financial terms and dynamics from him as he was always willing to grant me interviews and explain issues whenever approached.
He left CDH with a strong foundation which has allowed the institution to grow into a fully fledged financial institution it has come to be today.
When he moved to Malawi Savings Bank as CEO, he helped transform the then government-owned bank into a vibrant financial institution operating on private sector principles.
He become somehow a different person when he joined the government as Secretary to the Treasury later as I suddenly found him to be cold and unwilling to grant interviews to the media.
As Secretary to the Treasury, Mwanamvekha was embroiled in a corporate governance controversy which saw him technically maintaining his position as CEO of MSB while on “sabbatical” at the Ministry of Finance.
What was interesting was the fact that as Secretary to the Treasury, Mwanamvekha was also board chairperson of MSB, which meant he was doubling as chairman and CEO of the bank.
Whether it was coincidental or not, it was also during his time as Secretary to the Treasury when the Ministry of Finance and MSB were involved in the doctoring of Malawi Revenue Authority revenue figures through a K15 billion dubious advance from MSB and other banks meant to paint a rosy picture of government revenue for the sake of impressing the IMF.
During the two-year break of the DPP government between 2012 and 2014, Mwanamvekha “disappeared” from scene but made a big come-back after he won a Parliamentary seat in Chiradzulu under the DPP and made it into President Peter Mutharika’s cabinet as Minister of Trade.
From the time Mwanamvekha moved to government as secretary to the treasury, I have rarely interacted with him until last week when I covered the Malawi-Mozambique Bilateral Trade meeting in Tete, Mozambique where he led the Malawi delegation to the talks.
And I must state that I was impressed with how he did his job.
It all started earlier on the day Mwanamvekha was expected to meet his Mozambican counterpart but had to first discuss with Malawian officials prior to the meeting.
The Malawian technical officials had met Mozambican technocrats before the ministers’ meeting, from where they developed an issues’ paper for discussions by the ministers.
Apart from coming to the meeting earlier than some of the officials, Mwanamvekha demonstrated that he clearly knows and understands his job as he competently commented and took to task his officials on some issues they had included or excluded in the issues’ paper.
So substantive were some of Mwanamvekha’s inputs that they had to be included on the agenda for negotiation with the Mozambicans.
When time for the bilateral meeting came, Mwanamvekha was again on top of the game and passionately led the Malawi team in the discussions to the point where the Mozambicans were even able to make concessions on some issues they had previously stuck to.
And that wasn’t simple as the Mozambicans are not easy to negotiate with. Apart from language barriers, they are renowned for sticking to what they believe in and you really have to be well prepared with your facts and arguments to have any chance of convincing them to change.
And I thought that Malawi came back with a better deal following the discussions in Tete.
After observing Mwanamvekha in the thick of things discussing trade matters with the Mozambicans, I’m more than convinced that Malawi has the right man for the job in as far as the Ministry of Industry and Trade is concerned. And I didn’t need any special expertise in trade to be able to see a minister doing his job well.
Thumbs Up Honourable Mwamvekha for a job well done.
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