Chilima throws out council officials
Vice-President Saulos Chilima last week sent back late-comers and poorly-dressed district council officials who were set to attend public sector reforms meetings in Blantyre, it has been established.
Some delegates to the meetings confided in The Nation that a number of officials from Phalombe and Mangochi district councils were not allowed to attend the meetings held at Sunbird Mount Soche because they were wearing T-shirts or shirts without jackets or neckties.
In one case, an official was putting on slippers, according to a source.
On time management, the source said for the meeting scheduled for 10.30am, one delegation of 10 saw four members making it on time, three walking in 20 minutes late and another three popping in 40 minutes later, a development that irked the Vice-President to ask them to walk out and await a briefing from their colleagues.
In an interview on Thursday, Mangochi district commissioner James Manyetela confirmed that one of his members of staff was asked to leave and wait outside because he was not properly dressed.
He said: “Although I was not around as I was attending a meeting in Maputo, I have information that one of my officers who went to Blantyre to meet the reforms committee was sent back as he was wearing a safari suit and a T-shirt.”
According to another source at the meeting, apart from poor dressing, some officials who showed up late were barred from attending the meeting.
In Malawi, the dress code for most business meetings is a lounge suit, shirt and necktie for men and a business suit or national dress for women.
Press officer in the Office of the Vice-President, Pilirani Phiri, confirmed in an interview on Thursday that the incidents took place.
He said: “I can confirm that this indeed happened. The VP values discipline and time management. He believes that showing up in time for meetings is a sign of commitment and respect for others.”
Chilima, a technocrat plucked from the private sector in 2014 to partner President Peter Mutharika during the May 20 2014 Tripartite Elections, is well-known for time management.
In 2015, he locked out some principal secretaries (PSs) and senior government officials at a reforms meeting he addressed at Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe.
During consultations for the reforms with the private sector in Blantyre in early 2015, Chilima shocked captains of industry when they found him already in the meeting room about 15 minutes to the scheduled starting time. The Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) apologised to the Vice-President for the late coming of its members.
The Public Sector Reforms Commission (PSRC), which Chilima chairs, last week took the reforms drive to local authorities in a bid to curb fraud and corruption and improve service delivery at council level.
The commission met about 18 districts and city councils from the Southern Region, pushing them to think big and devise ways of improving the welfare of their districts. n
Is this the same VP who is shielding his personal assistant (Bodyguard) Moses Kuchingale from criminal prosecution for impersonating a Malawi Electoral Commission officer?
The whole nation knows that Moses Kuchingale was sent on a mission God knows by who, to rig the Mchinji by-elections by wearing a Malawi Electoral Commission uniform so that he could get access to the voting material and tamper with it to sway the results in DPP’s favour.
Mr VP stop fooling people around as the only saint there is in the DPP politburo, you are the worst Catholic I have ever seen………your sainthood will be judged by the way you have handled the Moses Kuchingale case not for being punctual at meetings everyone can do that if they wanted to.