Recently, government made appointments into principal secretary ranks. Beyond creating jobs to political buddies, the appointments are said to be a slap in the face of the need for frugality in the use of public resources and for spending in sectors that drive growth
Office of The President and Cabinet (OPC) recently made changes in the different ministries redeploying some principal secretaries, promoting others to that rank and bringing in new faces to that grade as well from outside.
Observers say while some of the appointments are meant to create jobs for political kith and kin, they may also be inconsistent with the government’s own proclamation on frugal use of resources through a streamlined and efficient public service.
However, an official at the Ministry of Finance allayed the fears, arguing that some of the appointments are on secondment and, therefore, do not change the wage bill that much.
For instance, in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning where the changes were also recently effected by appointment of new principal secretaries (PSs), the number of officials in that grade has now risen to seven.
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The ministry now has Betchani Tchereni as Secretary to Treasury, Jacob Mazalale as PS for Economic Planning and Development, Patrick Zimpita as PS for Public Sector Investment program, Ted Sitimawina as PS for Economic Affairs, Hetherwick Njati as PS responsible for Administration and Dorothy Banda as PS responsible for finance in the Accountant General’s office.
Accountant General Henry Mphasa is also in that grade.
Second with highest number of PSs is Ministry of Health which has four officials in that role. They include Samson Mndolo, Benson Chisamire, Lilian Chunda and Mathias Joshua.
Ministry of Homeland Security has three PSs.
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These rising numbers of PSs is despite many directors in the ministries overseeing similar duties which some of the PSs are responsible for.
A former top government official described the appointments galore being seen now as “unusual and horrific”.
“Maybe if the Secretary to President and Cabinet justifies what is happening but normally a single Principal Secretary is enough because there many directors in the ministries already.
“At the Ministry of Finance, it is the Secretary to Treasury and one PS responsible for Administration. The rest are directors. That has been the practice –unless the SPC comes to justify this. Where you have over six persons at PS grade, that’s unusual,” said the source.
One insider said as government continues to bloat the public service through such promotions and appointments, the wage bill could be bursting in its seams.
According to the revised salaries for employees in the civil service notice as issued by Secretary for Human Resource Management and Development Blessings Chilabade in January this year, a salary for a principal secretary at Grade C when summed up rests at K25.8 million per annum.
“First of all, this does not speak well to the austerity measures government has been preaching about.
“On the political, front I can tell you that this is the tendency to create positions for friends and family. And this is not done by the SPC but the politicians running the government. So the wage bill is bloated, the civil service has been overburdened because of this,” said one source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Spokesperson for Secretary to President and Cabinet Robert Kalindiza did not pick our calls on several attempts.
But an official from the Ministry of Finance said some of the PSs are at the ministry on secondment and that doesn’t change much on the wage bill.
“Some are still getting salaries from their old departments, what has changed are some benefits; including allowances, airtime, vehicles and other benefits as agreed in the contract,” said the finance official whose name we cannot disclose.
An economic expert Mervin Banda also said such unguarded appointments affect the wage bill and smothers out other sectors key for growth and development.
“If you look at the budget, wages and salaries are projected at K1.08 trillion representing 5.7 percent of GDP. The wages and salaries estimates have also incorporated resources for recruitment amounting to K6 billion and K70 billion reserved for general salary increment.
“To show how bad this is, you have to look at sectoral allocations of key sectors that are meant to drive the Malawi 2063 First 10-Year Implementation Plan (MIP- 1) for example the mining and education. They haven’t received this much money. This is why people say our government’s budgets are usually consumption based instead of investment based,” Banda said.
Executive Director Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency (Csat), Willy Kambwandira, said what is happening only confirms how deep the civil service has been politicized.
“This does not demonstrate the prudent use of tax payers’ money. Why should we have six principal secretaries and directors in one ministry doing the same work?
“We must free the wage bill and create an efficient civil service. Otherwise, it is unfortunate that our civil service has become a dump site for retired people and political mercenaries,” Kambwandira said.
