Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) Board Chairperson Leonnard Chikadya has resigned from his position with immediate effect.
Chikadya has announced his resignation in a letter dated February 26, 2022, addressed to Comptroller of Statutory Corporations Peter Simbani.
Chikadya and the entire Mera board were due to appear before the Public Appointments Committee (Pac) of Parliament at the weekend for an enquiry into how the board handled the recruitment of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Henry Kachaje.
But in his resignation letter, Chikadya says he found it troubling that Pac was inviting him to attend a second enquiry on a matter that the committee had already handled in October 2021 and made a determination which was duly communicated to the Mera Board on November 17, 2021.
“The enquiry of Pac was very comprehensive and involved all stakeholders that were involved in the recruitment process including the Office of the President and Cabinet itself through the Comptroller of Statutory Corporations that provided secretarial services during the recruitment process.
“Pac advised the Mera Board that they did not find any reasons to remove the board and, critically, Pac determined that the Mera Board was not incompetent in the recruitment of the CEO,” Chikadya has said.
Mr Chikadya’s withdrawal into a cocoon will not solve matters. What PAC is saying is that the appointing authority does not wield power to start accusing the Board. What the Board did was to identify a person they felt was suitable for the post. It then submitted their nominee to the appointing authority to endorse the nomination or not. The man at the helm saw it fit to approve the nominee without taking a background check and today just because the main stakeholders have noted glaring anomalies, the leadership should desist from moving goalposts and level the blame onto people he unashamedly catapulted to that so called incompetent board because things have started to backfire. Here the most incompetent person must be the one who chose the office bearers, who in turn picked for him a home boy whose credentials he found no grounds to check and rescind the decision made by Mr. Chikadya and friends.
That is what happens when you put people into offices based on favouritism, nepotism etc. As we trudge-on to our destination in Canaan we will see a lot of these dramas showcasing themselves whereby people will jump ship after realizing that the Captain is clueless and therefore steering the ship into troubled waters. The main message for the consumption of all Malawians is: “Don’t say that you were not forewarned”