The Public Appointments Committee (PAC) of Parliament wants Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) chief executive officer William Liabunya to explain why Egenco paid tuition fees for its company secretary Videlia Mluwira’s master’s degree before she became eligible for the privilege.

PAC chairperson Joyce Chitsulo disclosed to Weekend Nation in an interview last week that the committee received a complaint from a whistle-blower that Egenco started paying the fees for Mluwira before she served three years as the policy stipulates.

Suspects abuse of office: Kajoloweka

Clause 9.0 of Egenco’s training and development policy, revised in February 2021 on foreign courses, states: “Foreign courses shall be need-driven in line with the company’s strategic plan and will be limited to postgraduate training, specialised courses and attachments not tenable in Malawi. An employee can only be considered for foreign short courses upon serving for a period of not less than one year and for long courses upon serving for three years.”

Mluwira was awarded the training last year when she had just served for two years.

Said Chitsulo: “I can confirm that the committee, through its clerk, has penned the CEO to explain. This is an operation issue and he has up to Friday next week to respond.”

Efforts to talk to Liabunya proved futile as for over a week he did not pick our calls or respond to our questionnaire sent through his WhatsApp number.

Egenco’s training policy also states that for courses funded by the company, an employee going for training for more than 11 months is supposed to be bonded for three years while those on training for six to 10 months are bonded for two years.

Weekend Nation has also seen a payment voucher dated May 30 2022 from Egenco to National Bank of Malawi Chichiri Service Centre in Blantyre titled ‘Payment of 7 000 British pound sterling to University of Dundee.’

Reads the voucher: “Kindly arrange to pay University of Scotland in the UK 7 000.00 [British pound sterling] being deposit fees for Mrs Videlia Mluwira, student ID number 2362871 to pursue master’s degree (LLM) in Environmental and Energy Law (Distance Learning).”

When contacted for comment, Mluwira cut the line after the subject was introduced to her.

Egenco board chairperson Colleen Zamba, who is also Secretary to the President and Cabinet, did not respond to our questionnaire sent to her a fortnight ago on what action her office was going to take in light of the allegations.

Commenting on the issue, Youth and Society executive director Charles Kajoloweka said the arrangement, if proved to be true, is tantamount to abuse of office and urged relevant offices to take up the matter.

He added that the people behind the decision need to face sanctions and, most importantly, “there is need to look at restitution of the said funds if unlawfully obtained”.

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