A major governance scandal has erupted after suspended Public Service Pension Trust Fund principal officer George Jimu told Parliament that the fund was pushed into making decisions without a legally constituted board—raising serious questions about legality and abuse of authority at the highest level.

George Jimu

Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee, Jimu revealed that the fund was repeatedly summoned to high-level meetings chaired by former Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba and driven by OPC Director of Legal Services Chizaso Nyirongo—despite the board being dissolved.

“We had no board, but we were still being called into meetings,” Jimu told the committee, exposing what appears to be a direct violation of governance rules.

Documents presented to the committee show that on March 6, 2024, a high-level meeting in Mzuzu—attended by senior OPC officials including former State House Chief of Staff Prince Kapondamgaga—directed the fund to proceed with a transaction.

Commitment letters were then issued to Yusuf Investments Limited on March 7–8, 2024, under instructions from OPC-linked officials, even though there was no legally recognised board in place to approve such a move.

This strikes at the core of the law: without a board, the fund has no authority to make binding financial decisions.

Jimu made it clear that under the fund’s rules, the principal officer cannot approve or sign off on board decisions—he has no voting powers and cannot legally bind the institution.

He told the committee that all contracts and resolutions must be signed by the board chair and fund secretary under trustee Article 15—meaning any commitments made without a board could be legally invalid.

Even more troubling, Jimu testified that after trustees’ terms expired in September 2024—and even after a new board was licensed in December but not recognised by OPC—the pressure did not stop.

The fund was again pushed into another meeting in June 2025 over the same transaction, despite the ongoing governance vacuum.

The revelations point to possible illegality, including the usurpation of board powers, procedural breaches, and the potential invalidity of financial commitments made during the period.

At the centre of the storm is a simple but explosive issue: who authorised decisions when there was no legal authority to do so?

The testimony now places intense scrutiny on the role of senior OPC officials and raises the risk of legal challenges, accountability proceedings, and possible nullification of the transaction.

What is emerging is not just a governance lapse—but a system that may have operated outside the law.

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