APM REJECTS K3.3M SPEAKER’S SALARY

Package included 2 500 litres fuel per month

President Peter Mutharika has rejected a proposal by the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) to increase salaries of office bearers in the National Assembly and the parliamentary service.

If approved, the proposal would have seen Speaker Richard Msowoya receiving K3.3 million gross monthly package, The Nation can reveal.

The proposal would have made the Speaker the highest paid public servant in Malawi with the President coming after him.

The proposal was made a few days after government had raised salaries of the President, Vice-President Saulos Chilima, Cabinet ministers, leader of opposition in Parliament Lazarus Chakwera and Members of Parliament (MPs) by hefty percentages ranging from 80 to 376 percent effective October 1 2014.

According to a confidential memorandum The Nation has seen, the revised emoluments followed a meeting of the PSC held on October 3 2014 to discuss the matter.

The document shows that the PSC meeting agreed to have the Speaker remunerated at a rate higher than the Chief Justice which translated to a gross monthly package of K3 350 000 and a job facilitation fuel of 2 500 litres per month.

In the revised emoluments, the leader of opposition new monthly gross pay would have been K2 280 000 with a monthly job facilitation fuel of 1 000 litres while the deputy speakers were to be salaried at a rate higher than deputy ministers, but lower than Cabinet ministers which translated to a gross monthly package of K1 710 000 and a job facilitation fuel of 750 litres.

MPs, whose effected new salaries are K600 000, would have been getting a gross monthly package of K1 100 000 while parliamentary staff were to be remunerated in accordance “with a separate salary structure at an average increase of 24 percent.”

The PSC also wanted the MPs to be awarded K65 000 subsistence allowance per night, K10 000 sitting allowance (per sitting), K60 000 constituency allowance and motor vehicle maintenance allowance of K220 000.

“This memorandum is being submitted to seek Your Excellency’s consideration and approval that the proposals made by the Parliamentary Service Commission hereto be implemented with effect from 1st October 2014,” wrote Msowoya in the memorandum file Ref; NA/SOP/2 dated 16th October 2014.

In coming up with the revised personal emoluments, according to the document titled ‘Personal Emoluments for Office Holders in the National Assembly and the Parliamentary Service’, the PSC said it considered various factors such as rise in cost of living against a limited national resource envelope and to motivate MPs and parliamentary staff to deliver their mandate to the public.

Msowoya also said since its establishment in 1998, the parliamentary service has its own salary structure and has not benefitted from salary increases awarded to the mainstream civil service in several years.

Wrote the Speaker: “In addition, the service does not benefit from annual increments that are awarded in civil service every December. Accordingly the Parliamentary Service Commission resolved that the parliamentary service be awarded an average increase of 24 percent as announced in the National Assembly during presentation of the National Budget.”

But in his hand-written response inscribed on Msowoya’s memorandum, Mutharika rejected the proposal.

“Proposal not approved. Under the revised salary and allowances for elected personnel, your salary is pegged between that of minister and that of the Vice-President. Your basic pay is, therefore, K1 500 000 and your gross monthly salary is K2 080 000,” responded Mutharika on 6th November, 2014.

On Saturday, our sister newspaper, Weekend Nation, published a story revealing that the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) had effected an 80 percent salary increment for the President and the Vice-President plus 168 percent hike for leader of opposition in Parliament Lazarus Chakwera and Cabinet ministers. Members of Parliament have also been given a 376 percent pay rise. The adjustments were effected on October 1 2014, according to the leaked memo.

However, Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe said on Sunday that the new salaries will not be paid to any officer as of now.