National News

to me DPP continues to abuse public resources

Despite being reprimanded several times, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) continues to abuse public resources by among others using government vehicles to ferry its supporters to and from different venues of party functions.

The party’s use of government vehicles on such political errands is being done at the expense of critical activities in the affected institutions.

In a recent development, vehicles with government registration numbers were seen ferrying DPP cadets and other supporters to Chiradzulu where President Peter Mutharika presided over the memorial service in memory of John Chilembwe on January 15 as well as to and from a public rally held in Lunzu – Blantyre last Sunday.

Analysts have cautioned DPP against the behaviour which they said has a potential to affect service delivery in public institutions as they are rendered handicapped as their means of transport are taken away.

However, both Government spokesperson Nicholas Dausi and DPP secretary general Greselder Jeffery denied seeing any government vehicle ferrying DPP supporters.

Said Dausi: “I have never seen a vehicle with government registration number ferrying DPP supporters to any political rally. I could have been able to comment on the issue had I seen one but honestly I didn’t.”

On the other hand Jeffery said a lot of people attend presidential functions including rallies because as leader of the nation, there is a lot that he delivers during such functions.

“A lot of people come to presidential functions including cabinet ministers, principal secretaries, the Malawi Police Service and those from various government departments and agencies, they all use government vehicles and fuel, why don’t you question them. You want people to stop attending presidential functions? Who do you think the president will be speaking to then? It is imperative that they attend such meetings and hear what the president has to communicate to them.

“Talking of the Lunzu incident, you should know that it was a developmental rally not a political rally and all government officials were present and they indeed travelled using their office vehicles with government registration numbers. However, I did not see any of them wearing DPP colours,” said Jeffery.

University of Livingstonia (Unilia) Political scientist George Phiri blamed it all on the country’s political system.

“It has been there in history, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) used to do it during the Kamuzu Banda reign, United Democratic Party (UDF) followed the same trend and even the People’s Party and DPP. I think it is high time we redefine our understanding or the constitution itself on where do we cut the line.

“We need to define whether an activity is for a political party or for government. However, if there is an obstruction of efficient service delivery because the facility that was meant to provide that service was drawn to do another activity which is not practically related to what it was meant for, then that would constitute to an abuse,” he said.

Political commentator Mustafa Hussein in a similar story we carried on September 17, 2017 said the DPP was wrong to use government resources for party functions and urged the party to stop using public resources for partisan interests.

The story reported that four people were left stranded at Nkhotakota District Hospital as a hospital truck was on an errand ferrying DPP members to Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe to see off President Peter Mutharika as he left for the United States of America to attend the 72nd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Government departments and agencies in Malawi continue to face critical shortage of resources amid budget constraint and such abuse adds more pressure to the already scarce resources.

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