Chakwera cuts presidential motorcade, discourages allowance culture in Malawi govt
President Lazarus Chakwera says he has cut the presidential convoy as way of cutting down on government expenses so that the money should be diverted to critical social services for the people.
Speaking during a special weekly program on the state controlled Malawi Broadcasting Corporation on Saturday evening, Chakwera said he will now have less than 10 vehicles on the convoy.
“I have also ordered that no new vehicles should be bought for my convoy. We will use the same old fleet used by my predecessor,” he said.
However, Office of President and Cabinet ordered a new official car for Chakwera just before his swearing-in ceremony.
During the previous DPP regime, the presidential motorcade was under the limelight for embracing civilian vehicles that join the cruising convoy during the President’s official engagements nationwide, posing a risk of accidents.
He also warned cabinet ministers not to be extravagant.
However, the President was worried with the culture of allowances in government ministries, departments and agencies.
“The allowance syndrome is another form of plunder of public resources. We need to stop this culture. I will be engaging everybody to see how this can be stopped. The government is spending a lot of money in allowances,” he said.
He said his government is moving with speed to ensure that this culture of allowances is stopped in six months’ time, although he said, he knows he will face resistance from the beneficiaries.
Muchotsa akasinja ankayenda ndi mzanu uja nthawi ya Nundwe?
Iwe Chakwera kuyendetsa boma kukukanika. Try to victimise Civil servants by removing allowances and you shall smell the coffee. Why don’t you remove ministers and MPs and soldiers and your allowances first? Kodi kudzikonda kotereku nkotani?
All government vehicles should be put on car track
all controlling officers should self drive their cars.
no one should claim allowances not more that ten days per month
When I worked in Malawi in late 70s early 80s there were no allowances. I was paid a salary of (MK1987 per year six years later MK4840 per year) as a Professional Officer. The Malawi Public Service regulations stated that I was paid for working 24 hrs a day. The issue of allowance did not apply. If I used my car to go away from my station I was paid per mile covered, government paid for my accommodation and food(excluding alcohol) at hotel or rest house if I stayed away over night. I had to produce receipts all the time. If I went abroad the Embassy where ever I went had to pay for my stay and produce the receipts to my ministry to be refunded. If I spent more than my entitlement I had to pay back with a warning.
My problem with the current situation of Allowances is that people in higher positions can create unnecessary trips to get allowances. A lot of government employs do not get away from their stations so their salaries are not enhanced by allowances.
My solutions:
1. All Allowances (including those of out of station), fuel, phone bundles, should be abolished
2 Everyone’s salary should be revised upwards so that everybody gets a reasonable pay.
3. Those privileges like free housing, guards, house servants, should be part of salary and taxed.
4. Government and Para-statal vehicles for Senior Officers should not be offered to them to buy at reduced prices. They should be sold at Market value to the General Public or Highest Bidder.
5. Government Houses should be sold on open Market and not the person leaving in it.
5. No Senior Officer should have more than one vehicle.
6 The country is also losing a lot of money buying very expensive vehicles for the luxury life of a few people. This should stop
The country should share the little she has equitably so that everyone feels belonging to the country.
There are just too many thieves in the civil service. The coming of cadets made things worse and you and Chilima have a lot of rubble and sewerage to clear and clean.
That’s what we been waiting for, we can comfortably say that our votes was not waisted.
Ndife okonjwa Dala chonde sinthampi zinthu, MBC yayambanso zandale, please let MBC broadcast issues that benefit all.
Zoyimika magalimoto mu mseu kuti a president adutse tithe.
An allowance is not an automatic part of the salary package and should not be considered as a benefit. It is treated as a resource to use when performing a task and can change anytime depending on given circumstances. Unfortunately the allowance system is in total abuse by far needing stringent measures to reduce it’s cost through replacing it with other efficient means without impacting service delivery.
This should extend to Members of Parliament as well.
And ministers privilege s are allowances
Even to the president himself, mumvetsa abale anga pochotsa Cadet nkubweretsa wa Pioneer kkkkk
Tikutaya nthawi ndi zinthu zazing’Ono komanso za ziiiiii. Olo zitakhala 100 no problem so long you are able to deliver. Bakili adataya nthawi ndikumunena Kamuzu kuti adaononga ndalama kumanga chinyumba chachikulu chogona munthu mmodzi mpaka adathawamo nkuyipanga kukhala parliament. Wabwera Bingu adati Big minds with BIG dreams need Big house. Tidazikonda coz ntchito ya manja ake idamuchitila umboni. Ndipo ife tonse ndife mboni. Chofunika abusa ndi ntchito ya manja anu zikuchitileni umboni. Olo mutayendera galimoto imodzi yokha koma ntchito zero Amalawi muyambana nao. Kudikira Amalawi kumativuta. You are talking too much.
Exactly
Thumbs up, Dr Laz. Kadziko kakang’ono ngati Malawi koma convoy ndi security kuposa ya Queen Elizabeth! President wa ku Malawi olo kabaza akhonza kukwera pa convoy. 🛵
APM should explain why he gave Atupele a convoy of police vehicles. Mbuzi imeneyi inatikwana ndithu. Kutibera dzuwa likuswa mtengo.
no time for that bhabha tiyeni kutsogolo
Zoti nduna and mfumu ikadwala basi kunja should stop. The hospitals within Malawi should be improved. The ministers should not own private schools and should be encouraged to send their children to local schools ngati kale. They will know the problems there.
Zanzeru izi
1. Cut ✂ or stop allocation of fuel cards for PSs, Directors and CEOs of parastatals because there is a system called kusungunula whereby they exchange the fuel for cash and this is very common for this group which now drives vehicles home. Previously it the Office Superintendent buying fuel and were being checked by controlling officers. Let the drivers do this job and when they steal they don’t do it as much as their bosses do. 2. On allowances it also starts from the top to the last person. PSs don’t approve trips if they are not given allowances. Introduce the system that is used in NGOs or international organizations whereby people account for the money used and return the rest. Take or leave because there are many people looking for jobs. 3. To increase performance and productivity let all Malawians compete for vacancies from whatever grade. The lazy ones will start working hard 4. Stop all executives from buying vehicles after using them for five years. That is stealing and it’s common at the Reserve Bank of Malawi. They buy those cars for K1 million and sell them for K20 million. That is theft of public money. Revamp PVHO. Even top civil servants buy cars at K500,000. Kuba. We all pay taxes and a small group of people should not benefit. Civil servants have better pension that others who get it from Nico, Old Mutual etc. MPs also live on allowances and you know well Mr. President. The list is long. Trips to United Nations General Assembly mpaka Jomo Osman Kupita nawo. 5. Think of using a helicopter 🚁 to avoid troubling us on the roads.
you dont decide on your security. let security people decide. They will scare you that you will be killed if the convoy is reduced so that they continue accompanying him. That aside he only needs three cars including moving ambulance and toilet. For goodeness sake who might want the life of Chakwera. Assassigns are in MCP as it was their trade mark in the 31 years.
Another nyenkhwelious kumpanda
During campaign mr president you promised better money than former government.
Today different tune, tiwona kuti mpanga bwanji.
Mmati ndalama zili muboma.
Allowances must fall your excellency. Put in stringent measures for allowance approvals.
Revalue the Kwacha Mr President, katundu atsike, ndalama yizigula katundu wambiri.IMF cheated Joyce Banda.If you got eyes look into that.Most Malawians ,they struggle to find money and the money buys little things.Devalueing the Kwacha in the name of exporting more goods was not for Malawi as the country doesn’t produce alot, if we can compare with china,yes china can devalue it’s currency with the reason of exporting more goods,as China produces alot of goods.All the best .
if Chakwera wants to tame the culture of allowances he should ask his minister to stop these stupid and useless familiarisation tours. These tours do not come cheap because officials from the ministry will travel with the minister and all claim allowances including fuel because each one of them will be using his or her car. a ministers tour costs government not less than 3million in allowances. These ministers should have stayed in their offices, start meeting with ministry officials before embarking on these useless trip. the next step should have been to read reports and have meetings with senior officials in their ministry. These minister are travelling just to show off to the public that they have been appointed as ministers and yet what they are doing is complete trush and waste of money. Imagine Sidik Mia has been minister in the same ministry so many times, he know s the problems , why not just get down to work instead of wasting time travelling.
If he wants his neck to be broken let him try that.
Chicken economics
This is absolutely true
Which school did you attend? Your lecturer should ba ashamed!
The british prime has a maximum of 4 vehicles on his motorcade.this is a leader of a developed country.i dont see the reason ,the presidential motorcade here should be 10 vehicles.our country is too poor for such.
True, yet his country is the 6th RICHEST on the planet compared to Malawi which finds itself on the opposite end. Also despite (British PM) being highly priced target as compared to some Malawian leader.
Do you know the amount of resources Britain spends on intelligence and secret services? Muphetsapo Dr Laz za zii, nkhani yake anthu akutameni kuti mumatha kuwumila.
Angafune Kuapha awa ndani. 4 vehicles with proper security is good
Kkkkkk and by having more convoys government is creating the job
You are right their spend quite alot and it’s in millions in pound.
Those are just visible unakaziwa invisible security yokhayo u akakhala chete…
However am proud of chakwera that’s wat we need
You stated too well the the Prime minister of the Great Britain has about for Car in his convoy. You went further to say Great Britain is a developed Country. You observations are accurate and I commend you. But you must not forget that as a Country is developing even there security system develops. There have invested heavily hence they reduction in the number of Motor vehicles in the Presidential Convey. He’s Excellency the President is trying by risking his life to save some of the Moines and must be commended. It is very expensive to host a Presidential Funeral,we have had two of them ourselves but they died with natural cause. It will be expensive if the President was killed by a bullet or a planned hit on God forbid, The Country would lose alot of money bringing in Scotland Yard or CIA to investigate. I believe the system in Malawi is not all that advanced like in our friends Countries. Our friends have Street by Street Cameras,Satellites,Drones,Monitoring towers,Vehicle grenade repellers and many latest and sophisticated security gadgets.Whilest us all we have is old AK 47 assault rifles,A Soldier who is ill paid he did had his breakfast in the morning,Children are hungry at home. Do it’s a challenge my dear. Let us just pray for him to gather what he can that which was plundered and is been plundered so that an ordinary citizen can have medicine in Hospitals,Food on the table for the family,can afford to sponsor children to school. We pray for Malawi otherwise it is difficult.
The British govt spends tens of millions in other ways to protect the PM! Simple comparisons like this are stupid
People are not ashamed signing allowance without travelling. Mr President its a serious sickness. Even the directors are involved. I once worked on a consultancy; donor funded activity; these guys were signing twice; one for the ministry another from project vote. I know with hope and faith; Pang’ono pang’ono tikonza dzikoli.
Tikakudyele kuchipatala? Iwe galu eti?
Kuzolowera kuba, pali nkhani yomutchulira wina galu apa? Learn to live honest lives!
Mbava iwe! You think it’s ok to collect two allowances for one trip? Mbuzi. My president will drain the swamp
increase the salaries, koma zoti tichepetse zama allowance then the whole salary you should be able to withdraw using the atm of 200,000 limit and you are a graduate sizoona
Koma kusainira ma allowance abodza ndiye u graduate?
Go on bigggie. Stop the theft allowance scheme even by the auditor general. These people steal allowances. They will claim allowances for 20 days even when the work will last a few days and they will include people who are not even on the list to conduct the audit. They will make double allowance claims from their office as well as from a department or agnency they want to audit. If you dont give them allowances they will write a bad report
They will write a real report
Wikleaks ukunena dzoona. They get allowances from their office and demand allowance again and accommodation from their clients. Is there independence there? They are compromised.
Just ten in the convoy!
The allowance culture must indeed stop it he president needs to be tough on this one. Just go to district assemblies and see how assembly officials demand allowances from NGOs presenting projects even if 4 NGOs are presenting on the same day, same meeting they will demand 4 allowances. If you don’t give them they will do everything I to frustrate the project regardless how important the project is to poor Malawians. Izizi zitheretu bwana president
Only 10 you say. 10 is too many. How can Chakwera justify that in the poor state of economy we have.
Umafuna angati? Ya APM ukudziwa kuti inali angati?
Forget APM and others let’s talk about democracy and whether for a country as poor as we are a 10 car Presidential convoy is justified. Maybe you should travel and see Botswana and other countries where Presidential convey is 4 cars. So grow up.
At least he has reduced the number. That’s a good beginning
10 is still a big number, I feel for starters this is reasonable. As we go forward the reduction must continue.
Mboleyake chakwera tikadye kwamako
Having 10 vehicles on a convoy will not solve anything because that number is even big. Check the number of vehicles that the POTUS has on his convoy and compare that with the figure suggested. As is usually said, “Walk the Talk”. Actually, it makes sense to do it silently and let actions speak on its own other than making a special announcement as if others in the past didn’t do the same and no tangible action was achieved.
POTUS has fighter jets, helicopters and satellites monitoring and protecting his convoy. Serious military hardware is also on that convoy. Apples and Oranges.
Do you know how much your POTUS spends on security and intelligence? In Malawi we are low tech, so 10 vehicles is ok.
Bwana president, allowances constitute close to 30% of the council.budgets when put together. In short, the way our govt operates, we cant run away from this. Unfortunately very few people have the previledge of accessing these allowances. We need to find away of overhauling the salaries of civil servants and then peg the allowances at 7% or around here. Government employees survive on allowances not salary. Lets clean this up once and for all. But we can take off allowances from them.without looking into their pay, you will cripple your own service delivery
For allowances, this is good development. Most civil servants pocket allowances even though they dont go to the field. Or they pocket 10 days allowance and stay just for 3 days and rush to another field trip
It is called subsistence allowance and it’s for lodge and food when you work outside work station it’s not an enrichment
Imagine a civil servant goes to work in Mangochi and his entitlement is 30000. Decent accommodation is about 25 pin or 30/40. Decent meal is 3 pin. How can this one enrich himself/herself.
May be try full board which just enriches hostels, there you pay over 100 pin a night
Think carefully don’t just demonise things, check the rationale in the first place
I for one thinks stop the meetings that can be done internally, use our boardrooms and let the tourism industry suffer because they are also uplifted from these meetings check sunbird industries, they get business through these meetings
Don’t be emotional sober up and look at issues objectively
One way of dealing with this is to increase the salaries of civil servants,a lot of them usually depend on it as extra wage ! Now instead of stopping it complete give them incentive .
I am pleased to hear that Mr President. I have always told my younger brother that I really don’t understand this culture of allowances. Indeed you will court resistance in this regard. Allowances should be an exception and not the norm. You find anthu kufuna kulira ndithu becoz of allowances ngati its a birth right.
That’s very true . why not copy what NGO does.tjey use “fullboard” they pay for accommodation food etc and you don’t get a penny
Which NGOs? Most of these pay decent accommodation for their officers and give them hefty subsistence allowances. Check UN and some big international NGOs’ rates
It’s good you’ve reduced the convoy, you should also reduce the number of cabinet. I don’t think the cost to maintain the number of vehicles reduced will match the cost spent by the number you increased your cabinet from 20. Koma pa allowance eeeeish, mwayi umenewu ukapezeka umati kankha. Sitidandaula mukakweza salary ndi 200%
If you work or have ever worked in the West (Europe or US & Canada) you will know that when you travel for work, you do not get any travel allowance other than your expenses paid. In most cases, the organization will provide a credit card for these expenses. Expenses are for room and board and they will provide a limit on how much one can spend in a day for room and board. For local meetings involving no travel from base, those employees never get to use their credit cards and do not get anything other than their salaries. Even where a company credit card is not provided, the employee is expected to use their own resources that they claim after the trip (following the same restrictions on spend). You may be asking; where are we going to get credit cards? Government Departments can work with banks to make available departmental credit cards. What needs also to happen is to revise the compensation for people so that they do not see allowances as a way of adjusting their compensation.
After a bloated cabinet. However i must agree about the civil service and allowances. Achotsereni all fake allowances and unnecessary trips
I commend his Excellency on this move. The allowance culture is not helping our country and should be discouraged. If any officer needs to travel so that often, it either means there are too few officers and more need to be employed, or the officer has nothing to do in their duty station. Rather review packages to ensure officers can survive off them.
That’s great Mr president. End the allowance syndrome and reduce the motorcade to a limit of 6. Also we don’t want to see the savagery of running round and even STANDING ON TOP of car like was the case with nkhalamba motorcade.
Can you return the new car that was bought for you then?
Allowances are there for a purpose.Most of Govt.work require travelling e.g. collecting data at NSO. If it is stopped. How will civil servant in the field going to survive.
That’s why the President is saying let there be review. The issue of legitimate allowance claim can’t be overemphasized. However, there are people who receive allowances even if they didn’t leave their duty station.
Amaba udyo. They create a 5 day activity koma do it one day or worse still kungoyimba ma phone. They plunder heavily, have seen it personally. We need to stop this in order to develop.
Those should be expenses and not allowances. I am sure you know the difference.
Zithuzina zimayambitsa Kuba Boma ndizimenezi. Mr president have you you ever think why anthu Boma amapanga corruption? Salaries salaries, Mr president you need to balance things we need corruption to go but at the same times those who are working in government asafinyike ngati Colgate. Without works and allowances many of government workers will not make it. Malipiro ndi ochepa kwambiri m’boma nde mukamapanga zothetsa ma allowance think in those lines too. Cost of living is becoming unbearable for government workers. I must agree that it is possible kuti ena amapanga abuse this facility of allowance and pamenepo pakufunika kukozedwa ndithu. Koma mukamakozapamenepo muyambe. Mwaona Kodi inu ngati president mukulandila ndalama zingati ? Nakha ma allowance Anu ndi angati?
Mr chisokonezo, from an accounting point of view allowances are not bad, but they are really a critical area which must be given careful attention. Most civil servants really plunder our resources from this such claims. I agree with the president.
On the issue of allowances, something really needs to be done. Majority of Civil servants in all Government departments get allowances minimum of 14 days each month whether they go on a trip or not. This abuse of resources has contributed greatly to the poverty that this country is in. This plus the plunder through corruption which has gotten worse in the past 15 yrs has brought this country on its knees
Very true. They create activities they do not do but just to plunder