The Office of the Ombudsman yesterday concluded its inquiry into the alleged illegal recruitment of Egenco director of planning and development Labren Sondhi.

The inquiry comes a day after the High Court in Blantyre threw out Sondhi’s application for judicial review.

In an interview yesterday, Ombudsman Grace Malera said they proceeded with the inquiry after the court order and her office will make a determination on the matter later.

Malera: My office will make determination
on the matter later

She said: “We proceeded as planned and we have concluded the inquiry. Right now we are waiting for some information from the office of the Comptroller of Statutory Corporation and the Office of the President and Cabinet. We will make the determination after we are furnished with that information.”

Sondhi’s application is based on the premise that the Ombudsman does not have jurisdiction to inquire into the legality and/or procedural correctness of his recruitment and that the Ombudsman’s decision to conduct the public inquiry was unconstitutional and unlawful.

However, in his ruling on Tuesday, High Court Judge Mike Tembo described Sondhi’s application as premature and unfit.

Reads the ruling in part: “This court finds that the claimant’s application does not inspire any hope. And in the foregoing premises, this court is compelled to decline the claimant’s application for permission to apply for judicial review for being unfit for further consideration at a full hearing for judicial review.”

Commenting on the rise in number of injunctions against her office’s inquiries, Malera described them as a manifestation that some people do not understand the mandate and power of the Office of the Ombudsman.

She said: “Some people don’t want to be held accountable and this is entrenched in the culture of impunity.”

On Friday, the High Court in Lilongwe granted Power Market Limited (PML) chief executive officer Rosemary Mkandawire a stay order stopping the Ombudsman’s inquiry into PML establishment and her recruitment.

In the court order, Judge Yakuwawa Msiska directed that the inquiry be pended until the judicial review application is heard on August 1 2022.

In November last year, the Ombudsman was stopped from presenting a report on a probe into the recruitment of Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority chief executive officer Henry Kachaje.

The Ombudsman was barely 10 minutes into her presentation when she was stopped by a court injunction.

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