38% vacancy rate stifling councils’ operations
The Local Government Service Commission says the rising vacancy rates in district, town, municipal and city councils, pegged at 38 percent, is negatively affecting service delivery in the councils.
The Commission’s executive secretary Juvensius Berlings Kumpata made the admission in Lilongwe yesterday in an interview on the sidelines of the National Orientation Workshop on the Role of Local Government Authorities (LGAs) in Promoting United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He said that currently, government has registered an average 38 percent vacancy rate in the councils.
Said Kumpata: “The vacancies are arising from various factors, including deaths, retirements and failure to recruit new members of staff.”
He said that for the past two years, the Commission did not recruit new staff because it did not submit its recruitment plan to the Department of Human Resource Management AND Development.
“But now we have submitted the plan. We submitted in April 2017 and that has been factored in the 2017/18 budget. We expect to recruit anytime soon,” said Kumpata.
During the meeting, district commissioners (DCs) lamented the high vacancy rates existing in district, town, municipal and city councils, saying they are negatively affecting operations and service delivery in the councils.
In his contribution, Nkhata Bay DC Alex Mdooko said shortage of human resource in councils is denying citizens and residents to access quality services from their respective councils.
Chitipa District Council director of planning and Development (DPD) Tamanya Harawa agreed with Mdooko, saying councils need to be adequately resourced and equipped if they are to make any transformative change on the ground.
Last week, Neno District Council suspended provision of some of the social services because of inadequate staff.
But workshop facilitator Milton Kutengule said government has now given councils mandate to fill vacant posts; hence, no need for [council] authorities to wait upon government to address the problem.
Malawi has 35 local government councils broken down as follows: four city councils (Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba), two municipal councils (Luchenza in Thyolo and Kasungu), one town council (Mangochi) and 28 district councils.
