Ex- Malawi Young Pioneer to protest over terminal benefits
Former Malawi Young Pioneer (MYP) officers are set to hold another vigil at Capital Hill in Lilongwe to express their disappointment with government’s delay to pay their terminal benefits.
In a letter dated July 12, 2017, the group, led by Task Force Leader Franco Chilemba, said government promised to release their payment after passing the 2017/18 national budget.
“We are gathering again on July 17, 2017 because there are a lot of uncertainties on the progress of this issue,” reads part of the letter.
The group held another vigil in April 2017, after government also failed to honour the agreement of paying them by April 14, 2017.
Among others, Chilemba said the group is at loggerheads with the Office of the Director of Pensions to disburse their payment, of an additional amount of K500,000 through a pay parade for fear of Cashgate.
This is part of the K1.6 billion total package government is supposed to pay 2,760 former officers.
Chilemba allegedly said in the year 2012/13 when government started the payment process, many officers fell victim to Cashgate.
“We have asked government to pay the amount in their bank accounts. We have evidence that about K80 million went missing during that period when government officials were meeting us in our areas. We also met numerous challenges, with others failing to access their money due to lack of identity cards and letters of identification from the chiefs.
“They claimed to have deposited money for the remaining officers but vouchers from the bank were showing that all officers had gotten their money which was not the case. We don’t want that to happen again. Let them pay us through the bank,” he said.
He said the office keeps delaying the payments, adding that the office is also refusing to get the account numbers that the group wants to submit for the payment.
“We were told that soon after passing the budget, we would get our money. We have been following up on that but to no avail,” he said
Director of Pensions, Ambrose Mzoma, and Treasury Spokesperson, Alfred Kutengule, were not available for comment
Meanwhile, the payment documents of the officers are undergoing auditing as some of the members do not have documentation due to various circumstances.
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