Political analyst Wonderful Mkhutche says Members of the Malawi Parliament (MPs) should continue receiving sitting allowances but the amount they receive should be revised.
Mkhutche was commenting on a recommendation by the leaked report on public sector review. The Malawi Presidential Task Force on Public Service Systems Review in 2021 made several recommendation on allowances, employment contracts, procurement and on the conditions of service and restructuring.
The report, which was presented to President Lazarus Chakwera in 2021, was leaked last week and it recommended that the Malawi Parliamentary Service Commission should remove the double payment of sitting allowances for Members of Parliament and parliament staff since it is double payment as they are already paid a salary and other allowances. According to the report, the overall bill of sitting allowance for MPs is is more than half a billion Malawi Kwacha each year.
Commenting on this, the political analyst indicated that those who attend Parliamentary proceedings should be the ones receiving allowances and those who are absent shouldn’t.
“MPs should continue receiving sitting allowances but we should just revise the amount. The MPs should be paid after doing the job. This is the standard for all labour services and they should not receive preferential treatment,” said Mkhutche.
Regarding the failure by government to release the report in the year 2021, Mkhutche said the country has wasted three years which was an opportunity that could have improved public services in the country.
“The report should have been made a public document back in 2021. Then the government should have organized meetings for public input and then implement what seems to be sensible.
“We have wasted three years, an opportunity that we could have used the report to improve public services in Malawi,” he highlighted.
