The Government of Malawi, through the Ministry of Finance, says plans are underway to clear all the arrears for all the retired civil servants much sooner than expected.
Speaking to Malawi24 yesterday, the Minister responsible, Simplex Chithyola Banda said a lot of people are complaining that it is taking time for retired civil servants to get their pension, and the Ministry of Finance is committed to making sure that the issue is addressed as soon as possible.
“My ministry is determined to make sure that it clears all the arrears much sooner. You have seen that probably both sides of the house are interested because, in almost every constituency, we have retired civil servants; these are people who worked so tirelessly, and we simply need to pay them, but we also look at the available resources,” said Banda.
He made an assurance that the government would be clearing them little by little, based on the available resources and also looking at the number of them.
“Some of these retired civil servants have the noble responsibility to pay school fees for their children, but also some of them would like to build houses. So we simply need to look at how best we can address the issue, and as government we will try our best,” he said.
Member of Parliament for Zomba Lisanjala Susuwele Banda, said a lot of civil servants that have retired have not accessed their dues and it’s taking so long for them to access their dues and some of them have children that are in school and those children are dropping out of school.
“Currentl,y we don’t see any intervention that gives hope to the civil servants that have retired and I was making a plea tothe government to seriously consider civil servant; theyy should look at it as a problem that must be addressed. We can’t continue operating as if all is well,” he explained.
