CHAPTER XV - POLICE

Section 154 Subsection (1) This section creates the office of Inspector General of Police and states that his office shall be a public office. This phrase is repeated at the end and that is where it correctly belongs. It should thus be deleted where it first appears.
Subsection (5) This subsection guarantees the independence of the holder of the office of Inspector General of Police. It should however be expressed to be subject also to subsection (1) as it is to subsection (4). Subsection (1) requires the holder to be accountable to the Minister.
Section 156 (1) This section permits the Police Service Commission to delegate the exercise or performance of its powers and duties. However, the delegation is rather wide open in that it is "to any public officer or public body".
   A similar provision has been made in section 167 (4) in respect of the Prison Service Commission, but there the delegation is restricted "to any public officer or public body, being part of the Malawi Prisons Service"; and this is to be preferred to the provision made in respect of the Police Service Commission.
   It is recommended therefore that subsection (1) of section 156 be amended to add at the end the words-

", being part of the Malawi Police Force".

Additionally, the first comma in the first line of subsection (1) should be deleted.
Section 157 (3) This section disqualifies from appointment as a member of the Police Service Commission a person who is President, Vice President, a Minister, or Deputy Minister or a police officer. The reference to "a police officer" needs to be qualified since under subsection (1) (c) of the same section a police officer may be appointed as a member of the Commission.
Section 157 (3) therefore needs to be amended to insert the necessary qualifying words immediately before the words "a police officer". The section as amended would read as follows-
  "(3) A person shall not be qualified for appointment as a member of the Police Service Commission if he or she is President, Vice President, a Minister or Deputy Minister, a Member of Parliament or, save as provided under subsection (1) (c), a police officer.".
Section 158 (2) In the proviso, paragraph (a), "Malawi Police Force of Malawi" should correctly read "Malawi Police Force". Thus the words "of Malawi" should be deleted.