THE LETTER AND A WITCH HUNT: MACRA EMPLOYEES SUFFER REPRISALS AFTER ALLEGED WHISTLEBLOWING

The emergence of an anonymous letter alleging bad governance at MACRA has set the statutory corporation on fire. Some senior managers are paying the price: transferred to a non-existent office in Karonga, interrogated by police, and phones confiscated.

Josephine Chinele

It all began with an anonymous letter alleging various office abuses by the senior management of the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA). 

The letter’s allegations could not be authenticated, but they were lethal if true and probably defamatory, too.

But then, insiders say, the bloodletting began. Employees claim a modern-day witch hunt began, and those suspected of having anything to do with the letter or showing any signs of disloyalty became the targets. 

Sources say it also hardened the actions of management against the employees it already distrusted or wanted out. The reprisals became equally lethal.

Amid a toxic environment that followed, management transferred four of its employees, including senior managers with specialist duties, to a non-existent office in Karonga. Some of the transferred employees have also been interrogated by the Police over the same allegations.

This article is based on interviews with current and former employees who provided a picture of what is happening at the statutory corporation.  The interviews chronicled a chain of events that began once Director General Daudi Suleman was installed at the statutory body following the change of government in 2020.

While initial changes at the corporation were designed to flex muscle by the new administration, –push aside the previously blue-eyed employees of the previous administration– things started shifting slowly from politically motivated maneuvers to personal retribution.

A heated meeting

Director General, Daudi Suleman called for a staff meeting on Friday, August 16, 2024, at Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe, where, among others, he blasted staff members for attempting to get him fired. The cause of the fury was the anonymous letter whose contents suggested it had been addressed to the Minister of Information. 

The letter also suggests it was copied to the Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Ombudsman, Department of Human Resources and Management, and Auditor General, among others, makes various allegations about financial mismanagement including alleged allowance scandals, favoritism, among others.

Some of the allegations are directed at Suleman, but also other senior managers. 

Minister of Information and Digitalisation Moses Kunkuyu said a member of parliament showed him the letter ‘unofficially’.

“I couldn’t and I cannot act on the claims of an anonymous letter, but I requested the office to investigate and report back to me. Should the investigations authenticate the allegations as genuine, then we can act on that,” he told PIJ through the WhatsApp messaging platform.

The office of the Ombudsman said it never received or recorded any complaints about the matter.  The DHRMD, and OPC, said the respective offices, too, never received the letter.

(PIJ saw the anonymous letter but is not republishing its contents as much of the information bordering on accusations against the management is unverified.)

According to sources who attended the meeting, Suleman threw in the gauntlet and threatened to deal with anyone “trying to take him down as DG.” 

“I’m Chakwera’s personal friend and this position can only be occupied by someone like me not anybody of you,” Sulemani allegedly told the staff members, according to one member of staff, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Suleman refused to comment on the matter when contacted. Several sources collaborated on the version of events at the meeting and what happened next. 

Consigned to Guantanamo

A few days after the staff meeting, four staff members, Information Technology Manager, Gabriel Ali, Economic Regulations Manager, Linda Kambale, Management Accountant, Ruth Sawelengela, and Administration Officer, Esther Jangiya were unceremoniously given transfer letters. All based at the MACRA head office in Lilongwe, they would be informed their new operating base would be Karonga. 

Their transfers were with immediate effect; they were ordered to report for duties by December 1, 2024. New ‘job descriptions’ will be given in due course but never arrive. In the meantime, they were pushed out of their offices and allocated a new one without office desks and no internet connection.

Soon, the employees would find out the extent of their employer’s determination to punish them. While they remained on full pay, pending the relocation, they were sidelined from all official assignments. 

Two weeks after the letters arrived, the employees say, they were removed from the staff mailing list, which is supposed to include all employees regardless of their duty stations. 

The transfers were made without the knowledge of their respective supervisors, according to employees familiar with the matter.

The Head of Human Resources and Administration whom the letters referred to as their immediate supervisor has never been in touch on their new assignments.

Some of the affected employees sought an audience with Suleman in search of a solution. He refused to meet them, according to the sources. Some turned to the organization’s Board Chairperson, Bridget Chibwana, who promised to look into the issues.

Chibwana, too, refused to comment on the matter when contacted by PIJ: “This is an operational matter so please speak with the DG. Inform him that you called me and I have referred you to him.”

In September, some of the ‘transferred employees’ were interrogated by the police on the contents and author of the anonymous letter, providing a direct connection between their isolation and the anonymous letter.

One employee’s phone was confiscated by the police for some days after questioning.

“It’s been a traumatizing experience for them as they don’t know what they did wrong and the worst being questioned by the police,” said a MACRA insider. 

National Police spokesperson Peter Kalaya was not immediately available for a comment on the matter but Central West Region Police Spokesperson, Foster Benjamin, asked for more time to find out what happened from within the police system. 

Condemnation

Communication Workers’ Union of Malawi (COWUMA), a body that represents all workers in the communication sector, said the events at MACRA amount to victimization of the employees and complete abuse of office.

COWUMA General Secretary, Hamilton Deleza singled out the involvement of the police in a labor matter as an outrage – describing MACRA’s conduct as a complete abuse of power. 

“Being transferred to a non-existent office is a tactic to frustrate the employees to resign. This is very common in parastatals. Guantanamo is a bad labor practice,” added Deleza.

He said while none of the employees transferred to the non-existent office have complained with COWUMA, the body has received three separate complaints from MACRA employees reporting on alleged favoritism, including preferential treatment for interns over long-serving employees.

He further disclosed that Cowuma has four other similar complaints from employees of four parastatals, bordering on political loyalties, with those regarded as allies of the current administration sidelining those considered either neutral or connected to past ruling parties.

This article was published by the Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ), an independent centre promoting accountability journalism. PIJ is committed to professionalism.