Malawi
Public Officers (Declaration of Assets, Liabilities and Business Interests) Act
Chapter 1:04
- Assented to on 2 December 2013
- Commenced on 1 July 2014
- [This is the version of this document at 31 December 2014.]
- [Note: This version of the Act was revised and consolidated in the Fifth Revised Edition of the Laws of Malawi (L.R.O. 1/2018), by the Solicitor General and Secretary for Justice under the authority of the Revision of the Laws Act.]
Part I – Preliminary
1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Public Officers (Declaration of Assets, Liabilities and Business Interests) Act.2. Interpretation
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—“agent” means any person who acts for, or on behalf of, or in the name of, a public officer, and includes a trustee, an administrator or an executor;“assets” means holdings of value, whether tangible or intangible, movable or immovable, including cash, property, goods, savings, investments, equipment, as well as other quantities possibly having no market value, pre-paid expenses, or goodwill;“business interests” means participation with any individual in a commercial enterprise or venture, or participation in any association, institution, organization or entity, whether of a commercial nature or otherwise, regardless of whether a pecuniary benefit or other assets are derived from such participation;“close associate” means any person, whether related or unrelated by blood or marriage, who holds or will hold any financial interest, or any power, for or on behalf of a public officer;“declaration” means a declaration of assets, liabilities and business interests in accordance with this Act;“liabilities” means a present obligation of the public officer, his or her spouse or member of his or her immediate family arising from past events the settlement of which is expected to result in an outflow from the public officer, his or her spouse or member of his or her immediate family, of resources embodying tangible or intangible benefits;“member of immediate family”, in relation to a public officer, includes the public officer’s spouse, any biological or adoptive child who is below the age of eighteen or any biological or adoptive child whose means of support is wholly or partially from a public officer, irrespective of age;“Monitoring Committee” means the Monitoring Committee of Parliament established under section 213 (4) of the Constitution;“Public Appointments Committee” means the Public Appointments Committee of Parliament established under section 56 (7) of the Constitution;“public officer” means any person who is a member of, or an employee of, the Government, a statutory body or any other body appointed by the Government, whether his or her membership or his or her employment is temporary, whole or part-time, paid or unpaid.Part II – Objective and guiding principles of ethical conduct
3. Objective of the Act
The objective of the Act is to promote public confidence in the public service, including in the offices of public and elected officials.4. Principles of ethical conduct
5. Duty to submit declarations under the Act
A public officer listed in the First Schedule to the Act (in this Act otherwise referred to as the “listed public officer”) shall submit declarations in accordance with this Act.Part III – Office of the Director of Public Officers’ Declarations
6. Establishment of Office of the Director of Public Officers’ Declarations
7. Appointment of the Director and Deputy Director
8. Removal from office of the Director and Deputy Director
9. Acting Director
If the offices of Director and Deputy Director are vacant, or the Director and the Deputy Director are absent from duty or unable for any other reason to perform the functions of their office, the President shall appoint, subject to confirmation by the Public Appointments Committee, another duly qualified person to act as Director during such vacancy or temporary absence:Provided that where the period of such vacancy or temporary absence has exceeded twenty-one days, the President shall, within fourteen days thereafter, furnish to the Public Appointments Committee the reasons why the vacancy in both or either of the two offices cannot be substantively filled with immediate effect, and an estimate of the time within which the vacancy shall be filled, being not longer than three months from the expiry of the period of twenty-one days herein referred to.10. Appointment of other officers and staff
In addition to the Director and the Deputy Director there shall be appointed in the public service, such other officers subordinate to the Director as may be required for the proper performance of the functions of the Director, but the appointment of individual officers under this section shall not require the confirmation of the Public Appointments Committee.11. Functions of the Director
12. Powers of the Director
For the performance of his functions under this Act, the Director may—13. Monitoring Committee to monitor functions and powers of the Director
Part IV – Content of declarations, procedure and public access to declarations
14. Submission of declarations
15. Information to be specified in declarations
16. Retention of declarations
17. Public access to declarations
Part V – General
18. Offences
19. Disqualification from public office and reference for investigation
20. Whistleblowers
21. Penalties for disclosing identity of whistleblowers
Any person who discloses the identity of a whistleblower commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of K500,000 and to imprisonment for two years.22. False information by whistleblowers
Any whistleblower who provides the Director with information which he or she knows or believes to be false, or does not believe to be true, commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of K500,000 and to imprisonment for two years.23. Expenditure in connexion with the function of the office of the Director
The expenditure in connexion with the office of the Director and the exercise of the powers of the Director, and the performance of the duties and functions of the Director, shall be paid from moneys appropriated for that purpose by Parliament.24. Regulations
The Minister may, on the recommendation of the Director, and by notice in the Gazette, make regulations for the better carrying out of the provisions of this Act.25. Transitional provisions
At the commencement of this Act, any person serving as a listed public officer shall be required to submit a declaration in the prescribed form within the time set by the Director.History of this document
31 December 2014 this version
Consolidation
01 July 2014
Commenced
02 December 2013
Assented to