A political expert in Malawi has urged government to stop paying allowances to Members of Parliament (MPs) and cabinet ministers who fail to report for parliamentary deliberations.
The sentiments follow low attendance of MPs and ministers for mid-year budget review deliberations despite pocketing allowances.
On Friday, only 23 MPs and a few cabinet ministers attended Parliament out of 193 MPs that were supposed to be present for the deliberations.
Leader of government business Kondwani Nankhumwa also acknowledged the low attendance of lawmakers in Parliament.
Commenting on the development, a political expert George Phiri has suggested withholding allowances of legislators absent in Parliament.
“If ministers and lawmakers do not report for duties at Parliament when they are supposed to deliberate national issues they should not be paid for the days they are absent,” said Phiri.
He further called for provision of a law that will provide for the withholding of allowances of MPs who fail to attend parliamentary proceedings.
Meanwhile, government has spent K63 million on allowances for MPs and ministers.
