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Almost all civil servants have not yet been paid their March salaries and the Civil Servants Trade Union (CSTU) on Wednesday accused government of lacking courtesy to explain the delay and seek the public workers’ indulgence.
“This is not fair,” lamented CSTU President Thomas Banda when he confirmed the development on Wednesday. “Why is government just leaving us guessing?”
Banda said the accountant general had not yet released salaries for civil servants.
“Government must notify us what has happened so that we can communicate to our constituents through the establishments,” Banda demanded.
He said the delay was unfair considering the negligible salaries civil servants receive.
“We do not receive a lot of money that can last beyond the pay day,” said Banda who said he had made several attempts to contact relevant government officials to no avail. “What are we going to tell land lords, when government is not saying anything.”
Accountant General Reckford Kampanje said yesterday Treasury had not yet released funding.
“Mr Banda knows how these things work. We just prepare documents, Treasury funds. Find out from the Budget Director what has happened,” said Kampanje.
Sources at Ministry of Finance said a directive had been issued to treat President Muluzi’s trip to Mozambique and printing of ballot papers in the United Kingdom as priority areas.
But Budget Director Dorothy Banda said the funding for the salaries had not yet been released because of what she called “technical hiccups with the Reserve Bank”.
“This hiccup affected not only the salaries but the whole funding process. But the hiccup has been sorted out and the salaries will be released either today or tomorrow,” said Banda.
She did not explain why the hiccup was not communicated to the civil servants.
Economics Association of Malawi (Ecama) condemned the delay of the salaries, saying it was unjustified and unconstitutional.
“In the constitution salaries appear under statutory expenditure. What this means is that you spend on those things that fall under this expenditure first before you spend on anything else. Where has the money gone and why has the delay not been explained to the civil servants?” questioned Ecama spokesman Perks Ligoya.
Commenting on claims that the presidential trip and printing of ballots papers might have disturbed the funding process, Ligoya said: “If that is true, then it is unfortunate. You can not finance trip at the cost of human life.”
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