The public Accounts Committee this week wanted us all to believe that they were in the great service of the nation by summoning and quizzing officials from the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), National Audit Office (Nao) and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
The truth is they were wasting our time and theirs. They were there just to make allowances for their pockets.
Here is why.
The matter at hand was the K72 billion wealth in hard cash and property that former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika amassed within the eight years he was in charge of this country between 2004 and 2012.
As expected, none of the three agencies were any wiser as to whether Malawians would get anything on how the former president amassed the wealth.
The questions that any inquiry on Bingu’s wealth, or indeed on any of the former president’s wealth, must answer are: Did they abuse office in acquiring it? How much is it and where it is? Did they steal taxpayers’ money from Treasury and do we have enough capacity and know-how to get it back into Treasury?
Looking at the proceedings that the Parliamentary committee conducted this week, it is clear that these questions cannot and will not be answered.
There is nothing that the three agencies came up with this week, apart from pouring out excuses and frustrations with outside agencies on the matter.
Look, this is a pure waste of time because we all know how our presidents acquire wealth. They go into the presidency as paupers and come out billionaires because people looking for influence give them this money in form of gifts and ruling party support in return for favours to get government business in form of contracts, among other things.
That is why as soon as the presidents are sworn in, they distribute money and make donations amounting to millions.
We know what we pay them as taxpayers and it does not come near what they donate or the mansions that they build and give fancy names such as Casablanca Manor, whatever it means and wherever it came from.
Some of them do not even do any business worth noting for them to mint the huge sums of money that they splash and share around as candies.
Simply put, while South Africans are grappling with Jacob Zuma’s state capture, ours was acquired long time ago by big business looking to make money at the expense of Malawians by bribing presidents.
As for the hearing, did Alekeni Menyani and company expect any official from ACB, Nao or FIU to implicate Bingu who happens to be a brother to the current president? Are you kidding me?
This could only happen if the three bodies were free from the control of the executive which is the not the case at the moment unless the law is changed.
And that cannot happen now because this president and his government do not want it although they promised it in their manifesto.
The presidency is so powerful and unregulated in this country that the presidents think they are virtually the alpha and omega of us all. They know they have access to virtually anything and control the levers of power.
When they are at the State House they want to be treated as demigods and brook no criticism.
When they are criticised, they find ways of dealing with the critics. They do not want to hear someone telling them they have lost the support of Malawians.
Take the current president, Peter Mutharika, and his averse to criticism.
Before the general election in 2014, Chancellor College don Boniface Dulani led a team of researchers who did a national opinion poll under Afrobarometer that said the president would win the presidential election.
That time he was happy and over the moon. Fast-forward to 2017 and the same Dulani does another study which says Malawians have lost trust in Mutharika and he goes ballistic, calling the respondents in the study flies.
He does not stop there. He unleashes the Malawi Revenue Authority on Dulani’s little office somewhere in Zomba, under the guise that they have a case of tax evasion.
Is this not petty, if not downright embarrassing, for a whole president, a former university professor at that, to froth and shout because of a mere perception opinion poll done by fellow researchers?
What the country needs is to clip the wings of the presidents and make them fall into line to govern democratic Malawi.
What we need are laws to change the status quo to stop the presidents from feeling big and too important that everyone would want to bribe them.
Parliamentary committees conducting hearings on this matter will solve nothing. They will not bring back any money the late Bingu amassed through bribes or abuse of office.
It is just a gimmick for MPs to line their pockets by collecting some kwacha in allowances.
It is folly and unhelpful because we all know how presidents amass wealth.
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