BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—Lazarus Chakwera on Friday admitted to have made a legal error in appointing Deputy Inspector General of the Malawi Police, Demester Chigwenembe and the Commissioner General and Deputy Commissioner General of the Malawi Revenue Authority.

Chakwera has since withdrawn the appointment of the Deputy Inspector General of the Malawi Police, Chigwenembe.

 He has further said the two MRA bosses will be working on acting capacity, waiting for the board to make appointments as stipulated by the law.

President Chakwera said this during the swearing in ceremony of the newly appointed Ministers at the Bingu International Convention Center in Lilongwe on Friday.

“It has been pointed out, correctly I might add, that the law does not give me power to appoint a Commissioner General and Deputy Commissioner General for Malawi Revenue Authority. What the press release on the appointments did not mention is that because such appointments are the domain of the Board of MRA, my appointments are only made to function in an acting capacity until the Board is reconstituted and in place to make permanent appointments.

“I have made these provisional appointments to stop the free-for-all pilferage of taxes and the destruction of evidence that have been taking place there in the last few weeks, crimes which need to be stopped as a matter of urgency.

“As for the appointment of the Deputy Inspector General, it has duly been withheld pending a regularization process, and I commend all of you who noted the anomaly,” clarified Chakwera.

Zeroing in claims that some Cabinet Ministers have conflicts of interest, the Malawi leader said his office will develop a special code of conduct that will police the appointed Ministers from using their public office for the advancement of those private interests.