HRDC says Chakwera wasting taxpayers’ money through unnecessary travel

The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has condemned President Lazarus Chakwera for unnecessary travel, saying he is wasting taxpayers’ money.

The coalition said this during a press briefing conducted on Sunday at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe.

Chairperson of the grouping Gift Trapence said that some of the events that President Chakwera has attended are unnecessary and have only wasted public funds.

He also condemned the tendency of allowing many people to attend presidential functions.

Trapence then advised the president to start prioritising his visits and sometimes to allow cabinet ministers to represent him.

Trapence added that the Tonse Administration should also review the issue of hiking of Members of Parliament salaries considering that the economy of the country is not stable and suggested that the money should be allocated to other sectors such as health and education.

On the issue of corruption, the HRDC chairperson said government need to look into the issue of illegal selling and accessing of land by foreigners.

“We have noticed that not only the people from previous government are involved in corruption but that the current government of Tonse is also involved in,” he said.

The grouping has since assessed the first 6 months of Tonse Alliance Government and has given the administration a 50 percent score.

“According to what we have seen and what Malawians are saying out there that Tonse Alliance Government is not leading people to Canaan, the promised Land. Malawians are complaining and we need to see a change failure of which we will not take time to go in the streets. We want to have clear monitoring of commodities such as cooking oil among others,” he said.

“This government is very slow in making decisions, if they continue being this slow we are not seeing any improvement and development of this country,” said Trapence.