VZCZCXRO5116
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHLG #0194 0731313
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 141313Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY LILONGWE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3971
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

UNCLAS LILONGWE 000194 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE PASS TO USAID 
STATE FOR AF/S KAMANA MATHUR 
STATE FOR INR/AA RITA BYRNES 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM KCOR MI
SUBJECT: ANOTHER PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE BITES THE DUST 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: With raw Malawian power politics on full 
display, Parliament rejected the President's nominee for 
Auditor General on March 13.  The rejection, the latest in 
a string of high profile presidential nominees to be 
refused, comes as a result of government's inept management 
of parliament as much as from its political weakness.  The 
lack of an Auditor General continues to hamper the 
effectiveness of a number of activities in Malawi's 
Millennium Challenge Account Threshold Plan. End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Voting along party lines, the opposition sent a 
clear message to the plurality government regarding its 
weakness in parliament.  The nominee's fate seemed clear on 
March 9 when Deputy Minister of Education Roy Commsy--one 
of Parliament's youngest MPs--shouted at Leader of 
Opposition John Tembo during debate on the confirmation, 
yelling that government didn't "need the opposition." This 
comment provoked Tembo, who proceeded with a brutal 
demonstration of who is in charge. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Tembo's party had voiced concerns publicly over 
nominee Steven Mchenga's qualifications, and privately over 
Mchenga's Southern Malawi origins (Tembo's Malawi Congress 
Party is regionally based in Central Malawi).   However 
both Tembo and United Democratic Front (UDF) leader George 
Mtafu took Commsy's comment as a direct insult.  The UDF, 
which had quietly been willing to support the nomination, 
quickly changed sides and announced its opposition to the 
nomination.  Tembo's Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the 
UDF combined for one hundred and three votes against the 
nomination, with the government only able to muster sixty- 
one votes in favor. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The government will now be forced to come up with 
another candidate for the position, which fell vacant in 
January of 2006 upon the death of the previous Auditor 
General.  The Auditor General's office has the primary 
responsibility for auditing all of government's annual 
budget reports and reporting its findings to Parliament. 
This has become a crucial role as Parliament seeks to 
exercise more of its constitutionally mandated oversight of 
the executive. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Comment: The government lost this vote primarily 
due to its lack of organization and discipline, a point 
which has repeatedly brought trouble in Parliament. 
Government leaders in Parliament often fail to adequately 
control or organize the membership, and back-benchers often 
speak intemperately out of turn, causing problems for their 
party.  While Commsy is certainly to blame, in the end this 
comes down to poor management by the Leader of the House, 
Henry Chimunthu-Banda.  His relaxed, almost lackadaisical 
style fails to serve his party well, and sometimes, such as 
in this instance, leading directly to self-inflicted 
wounds. 
 
¶6. (SBU) At a functional level, the continued lack of an 
Auditor General hinders the implementation of parts of 
Malawi's Millennium Challenge Threshold Country Plan, which 
includes over $500,000 of program support to the National 
Audit Office (NAO).  Without an Auditor General, the NAO 
cannot officially release its annual audit report of the 
government budget.  This creates a serious problem for 
parliamentary oversight, as Parliament cannot analyze 
issues with past budgets without this information.  The NAO 
should play a significant role in ensuring the fiscal 
responsibility of the Government of Malawi.  However, the 
office has been historically weak and faces problems 
retaining qualified staff.  The continued lack of an 
Auditor General will make solving this problem, and 
achieving some NAO goals set out in the MCC Threshold Plan, 
difficult to achieve in the short term. End Comment. 
 
EASTHAM