Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has accused President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera of conniving with Speaker of the National Assembly Catherine Gotani-Hara to paralyse the parliamentary committee meetings on the pretext of the Covid-19 preventive measures.

CDEDI Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa said this in a statement posted on his official facebook page seen by this publication.

Namiwa said that Chakwera instructed Hara to ensure that parliament is not functional during this time, in an attempt to cover up the abuse of the Covid-19 funds.

“Our expectation was that the parliamentary committees such as those on Health, Budget and Finance, Public Accounts Committee and the Welfare Committee, were supposed to be meet to discuss the MK6.2 billion which has mysteriously grown wings at the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA).

“On the contrary, we have noted that President Chakwera and Hon. Gotani-Hara have prioritized the meetings for the Public Appointments Committee (PAC) of parliament, solely to discuss the firing of the two Commissioners for the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) and the appointment of the Director General (DG) for the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA),” said Namiwa.

Added Namiwa: “CDEDI is challenging Hon. Gotani-Hara to consider taking advantage of innovations in the world of technology to ensure that such committees, or better still the whole national assembly resumes its meetings virtually.”

Hara is yet to comment on the matter.