We have not received allowances for Covid-19 duties – Mhango

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Minister of Health Jappie Mhango has insisted that he and other ministers are not getting allowances from government for carrying out Covid-19 duties.

He was speaking today at a meeting between Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) members and members of the Ministerial Committee on Coronavirus. Mhango and Minister of Information Mark Botomani represented the committee.

Mhango said ministers are only entitled to 70,000 per day if they are not booked into a hotel and a sum of K5,000 if they are booked into a hotel but when working in Lilongwe they do not get any allowances.

Last week, the ministers went on trips to districts and a document that circulated on social media showed that the ministers received K450,000 allowance for conducting trips to districts.

Commenting on this, Mhango said the document is fake.

Mhango (in blue suit) and Botomani (in red tie) with HRDC leaders

“The document that is circulating on social media showing figures of 450,000  per day for a Minister and 300,000 for a member of parliament per day is fake.

“Someone from the principal secretaries group leaked the document and edited it putting those figures but the official document which Principal Secretary for the Ministry of Disaster sent on the group was not indicating those figures so it is a total lie that we are getting such amount of money from Covid-19 resources,” said Mhango.

Speaking after the meeting, Mhango thanked the HRDC for attending the meeting saying issues of allowances were clarified.

“We have clarified in the meeting that nobody, ever since we started meeting as a committee, drew allowances from Covid-19 resources. As I speak to you right now nobody has ever got any payment from the Covid-19 resources,” said Mhango.

In his remarks, HRDC Executive member MacDonald Sembereka said they wrote a letter last week to Mhango and Botomani in a matter of concern over the document and a video that also went viral where the two ministers were talking about allowances.

He added that the HRDC still want the two ministers to resign over the issue of allowances.

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