The President of Malawi, Lazarus Chakwera, yesterday outlined measures aimed at controlling the use of funds in government.
The measures include restrictions on foreign trips for all government officials for the period between June and December this year.
“Public officers, including myself, who need to travel abroad for their work out of absolute necessity will only be allowed to take no more than three trips during the remainder of the year, unless in cases of unforeseen extreme emergency.
“The number of people in a delegation travelling abroad will be subjected to stringent restrictions.
“No top-up allowances will be paid to public officers on fully funded trips for work, training, workshops, or conferences. Ministry officials traveling within the region for work must fly economy class,” said Chakwera.
The president added that all controlling officers will be held responsible for ensuring strict adherence to spending limits which the government has set for domestic travel.
Other measures include control of movements for government officials and a reduction of fuel for ministers by 20 percent.
The president also ordered that all contracts in government ministries, departments and agencies should not be renewed upon expiry and no new contracts should be awarded unless advised by his office.
“The renewal or signing of new employment contracts in all State-Owned Enterprises is forbidden forthwith, except for special circumstances that must be approved by President office, and this restriction will not be lifted until the Office of the Comptroller of Statutory Corporations is done reviewing the remuneration in this sector to ensure that it reflects the state of the economy and the performance of the institution,” said Chakwera.
He added that all boards of State-Owned Enterprises and Statutory Corporations must confine themselves to quarterly meetings, plus one extraordinary meeting per quarter for emergency situations pursuant to the approval of the line minister, unless allowed otherwise by his office.
To end the practice of public officers driving Government vehicles they are not authorized to, President Chakwera said all public officers authorized to self-drive will soon be issued with an authorization card to be enforced on the roads by the police.
According to Chakwera, no procuring entity in the Government shall be allowed to import goods or services into the country unless proof that the goods and services cannot be procured locally is submitted to and approved by the Minister of Finance.
The president said the measures cannot be amended by any government Ministry, Agency, Department or parastatal without prior approval from President’s office.
Meanwhile, Chakwera has appointed Ms. Colleen Zamba as the new Secretary to the President and Cabinet with immediate effect, taking over from Mr. Zanga-Zanga Chikhosi, who has been deployed elsewhere.
Chakwera said the appointment is aimed at building a robust monitoring system that ensures strict adherence to these measures and other directives in all MDAs, President
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