With only ten months remaining for her contract to elapse, Martha Chizuma’s legacy as Anti Corruption Bureau director remains in tatters as she has simply become a political pawn serving interests of donors and other local stakeholders.
The ACB czar has this week received a court relief that quashes the interdiction she received from the Office of President and Cabinet (OPC) pending a judicial review.
The court stay further complicates Chizuma’s role as she may head back to office just for showmanship not real work.
The events of the past weeks reveal traits a public officer whose position is not only unattainable but lacks morals to know when her time is up.
She becomes probably the first public officer who has tainted the decorum of such a high profile office with the careless antics in the public eye. ACB directorship is a high office at par with most of the top government positions on the land, as such Malawians expect more from those tasked to lead such institutions.
Professionalism has it that any employee renders loyalty to his/her employers. Chizuma has discarded this attribute by throwing all her weight to the donor community who have own interests.
Never in the history of the ACB has the donor community become so vested in corruption affairs as is the case now. Social observers have faulted such a move by the donor community as retrogressive as it on one hand meddles into the country’s legal framework.
“Chizuma doesn’t know that she is doing a disservice to the nation. When her contract ends in ten months time she will have nothing to point at as her achievements. Most of the cases she started have stalled with no real progress in court. She has badly affected the fight against corruption because of lack of strategy,” lamented one renowned social commentator who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing Western funding on his organization’s projects.
When the curtain finally draws on her tenure, Malawians will judge Chizuma not for her media appearances but the number of successful prosecutions. It is at that time that the count of successful prosecutions will stand at zero.
By that time, we will be many steps backwards in the fight against corruption as a country.