President Lazarus Chakwera has told newly appointed ministers and their deputies in his transitional cabinet that they should produce results or risk being replaced.
The Malawi leader made the remarks this afternoon in Lilongwe during the swearing in of the cabinet ministers.
In his message to the cabinet appointees, Chakwera gave each minister and deputy five months to produce results that will give Malawians confidence that change has come through the Tonse Government.
He added that at the end of five months, each minister will give a report to Malawians publicly on their progress in each of the key performance indicators.
“At the start of the New Year, I will shortlist those of you whose performance I find satisfactory and include you among those who will be publicly interviewed for a year-long appointment on my 2021 Cabinet,” said Chakwera.
The Malawi leader noted that ministries in the Malawi Government are characterized by wanton wastage of resources, greedy monopoly in the awarding of contracts, incompetence in the standard of work, and multiple systemic inefficiencies.
He further said that many Malawians are not persuaded that the new ministers are the right people for this job.
He, however said that he has seen each of the appointees leading others in the spirit of serving Malawians and building the Tonse philosophy when many odds were stacked against its success.
Chakwera urged them to prove Malawians wrong and to reaffirm that they have what it takes to deliver the Tonse Transformation that Malawians fought for.
“Should you prove the sceptics right by being lazy, abusive, wasteful, arrogant, extravagant, divisive, and corrupt, I will not hesitate to have you replaced.
“Contrary to public opinion, I am not beholden to any of you, nor do I have any of you to appease, for I owe both my election and allegiance to God and the Malawian people,” said Chakwera.
On concerns that several of cabinet appointees have conflicts of interest, Chakwera said it was inevitable that they would have conflicts of interest by virtue of accomplishments which led to their qualification.
He said: “However, rather than seeing such interests and accomplishments as a disqualifying mark, I elected to have the Chief Secretary devise a special code of conduct that will keep my Cabinet members from using their public office for the advancement of those private interests.”
Chakwera’s cabinet has 23 ministers, including Chakwera himself and Vice President Saulos Chilima. The cabinet also includes eight deputy ministers, all of whom are women.
