Legal and Consumers Department

Structure

The Legal Department comprises 4 legal counsel namely the General Counsel who reports directly to the Director General and doubles as the head of the Department and the Board Secretary for the Authority, the Deputy Director of Legal Services, Legal Counsel responsible for Review and Legal and Consumer Affairs Counsel. It is assisted by a secretary and a paralegal officer.

Policy and Legislation

The Authority uses the following as its working documents –

The Communications Sector Policy Statement of 1998;
The Communications Act; and
Operator licences.

Currently both the Communications Act and the Policy are under review to culminate into an ICT law and ICT Policy. The revised drafts can be accessed from the policy and legislation section and the government website i.e. www.malawi.gov.mw respectively. After the revision of the Communications Act, some licences shall also be reviewed to be in tandem with the new law.

We have also developed Broadcasting and Postal Regulations which are awaiting Ministerial approval before being effected. We are currently in the process of developing various regulations on telecommunications which shall be uploaded on our website in due course.

Mandate

The mandate of the Legal and Consumer Affairs cuts across all the departments of the Authority and includes the following –

Preparing for Board meetings, processing Board minutes and resolutions and following up on the execution of board resolutions;
Drafting, negotiating and reviewing the law, regulations, licenses and

guidelines on telecommunications, spectrum, broadcasting and postal;

Litigation on behalf of the Authority;
Conducting general legal research, opinion and advice;
Enforcement of the law, regulations and licences;
Arbitration, mediation and conciliation over operator and consumer disputes;
Negotiating and executing various contracts on behalf of the Authority;
Consumer protection; and
To provide any overall oversight support to other departments to ensure that all decisions are done within the law.

Programmes

Currently, the Department is involvement in several major projects including the following –

Review of the Communications Act;
Development of e – legislation on Digital Signatures, Cyber Crime, Data Protection, Domain Name Registration and Management and Electronic Transactions;
Development of broadcasting, postal and telecommunications regulations; and
Development of new operator licences.

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