My Turn – Allowances are Entitlements Mr President

With Draxon Maloya

President Lazarus Chakwera on Saturday outlined his government’s zero tolerance to graft which received a loud applause from various sectors of the country.

Chakwera even pointed out that country’s fragile economy was far away from healing considering the level of corruption which has reached record heights of stinking which is very unfortunate indeed.

Concurring with Chakwera’s sentiments is the recent publication that appeared in the South African publication, Daily Mail which has pegged Malawi’s immediate past former leader, Parter Mutharika’s regime among the most corrupt on the continent of Africa for the past 12 years.

With this revelation, one may need to know that Mutharika has joined the bandwagon of Mobutu Seseseko of Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo, and former Angolan leader, Edwardo Dos Antos who have entered the Guinness Book of Records as the most corrupt leaders who mercilessly plundered public resource during their tenure of office as presidents.

Indeed corruption is evil considering the failure by the country to meet some of the targeted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which among others seek to improve the health and education sectors which are still lagging behind as compared to those in the the Sub-Saharan region.

In a bid to avoid a repeat of some scenarios that have led to the fast development of corrupt structures in the society, then a number of factors needs to be taken into consideration having in mind that both the public and private sector have a critical role to play in mitigating the vice.

Combating corruption in all the sectors of Malawi’s growth and development will not be a success if the welfare of those working in the public sector (civil servants) still remains the worst in the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc)

In his address on “Malawi Watsopano” address Chakwera also tackled the issue of allowances which only opened talking points on various social media platforms throughout the night.

Several commentators resolved that the president would have made thorough consultations before coming up with an issue which has only demonstrated lack of knowledge on the subject matter he presented.

One of the lecturers at a university in town wrote in his contribution saying the president should tread carefully on the issue of allowances otherwise he should expect no progress in the performance of the civil service.

“This allowance issue came during Bingu’s zero budget. Government was supported by International organisations where full board was introduced, but do you know what happened?

Civil Servants who receive peanuts but survive on allowances especially in cities like Lilongwe, Blantyre, Zomba and Mzuzu were refusing to go to workshops organised by Non Governmental Organisations (NGO) and whenever they go, they were speeding up things abwereko mwachangu because panalibe chanzeru to go to a workshop 1 week zero tambala while the NGO is spending almost Mk60 000 in your name a day.

Productivity dwindled and the NGOs revised it and government also followed. We watch this space again,” he said.

The issue of allowances better be checked properly, mainly as to whether the rightful individuals are indeed getting paid and for the right purpose, otherwise ‘muyambananawo ogwira ntchito za boma, amamva kale kuwawa”

Meanwhile, the World bank has advised Government to implement measures that will rebuild the economy by recreating Wealth of the country in the wake of Coronavirus.