Tension is brewing at the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) over the decision to provide hefty salary increments to senior officers with some getting up to 45.9 percent against 16 percent for lower grades.
Sources at the bureau confided in The Nation that the development has caused a storm with lower graded employees perceiving the adjustments as disproportionate and favouring top management.
Based on the documentation we have seen, the salary for director general (DG) under Grade 1 has been revised upwards by 18.5 percent with the deputy DG in Grade 2 getting 33.8 percent.
In Grade 3, the document shows that directors of departments will get 45.9 percent while newly created positions of deputy directors of department have a starting salary of around K3.3 million per month.
“You can see that since Grade 4 is new, they needed to push salaries for Grade 3 higher up. That has also pushed back grades for chiefs, who were in Grade 4 initially, and have now moved to Grade 5. This has also affected perks,” said the source.
ACB spokesperson Jacqueline Ngongonda could not be reached for comment yesterday while questions sent to her via email and WhatsApp had not been responded to by press time.
But private practice lawyer Benedicto Kondowe said while institutions have discretion to review salaries based on responsibility and retention needs, such disparities can easily raise concerns about equity, morale, and institutional cohesion, especially in a public institution entrusted with promoting integrity and fairness.
He said: “Where lower-ranked officers perceive the adjustments as disproportionately favouring top management, it risks creating demoralisation, resentment, and a sense of exclusion.
“Support staff and junior officers are equally critical to institutional efficiency, and perceived unfairness can negatively affect teamwork, productivity, and institutional morale.”
Mzuzu University-based governance pundit Chrispine Mphande said the review was an interesting development story, owing to the fact that ACB has for long suffered underfunding that allegedly affected their operations.
In the mainstream civil service, government has in the 2026/27 fiscal year given civil servants between 10 percent and 20 percent.
In the K10.9 trillion 2026/27 National Budget, wages and salaries are projected at K1.923 trillion, up from the revised K1.631 trillion in 2025/2026.
The K288 billion increase covers existing personnel, salary adjustments and priority recruitment in key sectors.
