Malawi Officials and mining companies

Now that we are entering into the mining Big League we are likely to encounter a whole range of things we may not be familiar with or not are really not ready for. One of these is poaching of expertise by the mining industry from the government. The other more delicate one is the placement of government officials into positions that are likely to be sources of conflict of interest. Take the case Lisungwe Mineral Resources Limited. Its webiste lists three Malawians among its senior management officials. Two of these seem to be still in government and one of them is now the Minister in charge of mining. The company provides the following information on the three:

 

• Wren Banda – Director, was for many years a senior officer in the Geological Survey Department of the Malawi government where he had extensive relevant field experience.
• Grain Malunga - Non-executive director -  graduated in mining geology from the University of Nancy (France) and has held posts as Director of Mines and Principal Secretary in The Ministry for Irrigation and Water Development in Malawi.
• John Nkhoma - Senior geologist - a qualified geologist with a degree from the University if Wales, Aberystwyth and post graduate diplomas and certificates form other universities, joined the team in January 2008. Since 1984 he has been employed by the Malawi government as a geologist, for the last two years as Deputy Commissioner for Mines and Minerals in the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

 

It could be that at the time of taking on these positions none of theese people  were still in government. However the possibility that they might have been suggests a need to look again at our regulations and guidelines. The mining industry can be an extremely corrupting industry and and always needs close regulation by the government. The regulators shoud not be part of the management teams of the mining companies.