BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—Few days after finance minister Goodal Gondwe insulted Malawi civil servants for begging pay hike, the Peter Mutharika led administration has inflicted another pain on the “civil slaves” by failing to pay them January salaries in time.
The delay is a big blow considering that the workers got their December salaries as early as 19th day of the month, meaning 45 days now have gone since the last pay.
According to impeccable sources, 15 ministries have been affected by salary delays including ministries of Education and Health.
Government officials say the delays are due to the migration of pay points from Capital Hill in Lilongwe to council offices for more efficiency.
Teachers Union of Malawi president Denis Kalekeni said the pay point migration has affected the release of the salaries.
“But this was seen coming. They had piloted this in four districts including Phalombe where they experienced salary delays, teachers received their salaries on the 10th or 15th of the next month,” he said in an interview with the local media.
Kalekeni said after noting problems facing the pilot phase, the government should have called for a meeting of all stakeholders in a bid to seek opinions on how best to improve the system.
The government has decided to decentralise payment of salaries to make it more effective and efficient.
This comes at a time when district education managers have been empowered to fire misbehaving teachers, including those who abscond from duties without valid reasons.
But Maravi Post has established that almost all secondary school teachers have received their January pay because their pay point was Capital Hill as they are yet to be migrated to councils.