The Public Appointments Committee of Parliament (Pac) on Wednesday interviewed four people who President Peter Mutharika appointed to some positions in government.
Agrina Mussa, was interviewed for the position of Malawi’s High Commissioner to Kenya. Paul Thaulo and Edward Jeke were interviewed for the positions of Director of Public Procurement and Deputy Director respectively.
Another presidential appointee to undergo Pac scrutiny was Reverend Father Gervazio Namba, who was appointed a member of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) board.
Asked what attributes the committees were looking for in the appointees, the committee’s chairperson, Lingson Belekanyama, said there were a number of them.
“We look at a number of factors. For example, if a person is appointed a High Commissioner or an ambassador, the committee looks at how suitable the person is to the country he or she is going. We also look at how the appointee is going to sell Malawi to that particular country. If a person is, for example, going to Brussels, that one should be conversant with operations of the EU. Someone going to Geneva must know the operations of the UN. The committee also looks at the person’s qualifications and experience,” Belekanyama said.
He added: “I think it will be premature for me to assess them .But generally we look at people who know Malawi’s foreign policy and the foreign policy of the particular country to which the appointees are going Belekenyama said the committee will communicate the outcome to Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC).
“.We will have to sit down as a committee and make the final decision. We will communicate that to the OPC,” Belekanyama said
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