Cost of govt dismissals: General Odillo to be paid up to 2019

The purging of out-of-favour senior Malawi Government officials by in coming administrations continue to cost the taxpayer billions of kwacha as several contracted officials continue to receive their salaries and benefits while at home and doing nothing, Weekend Nation can reveal.

And the new Peter Mutharika administration is following the same script, crafted by the Joyce Banda administration of willy-nilly dismissals of civil servants.

Between 2012 and 2013 government continued to pay former Inspector General of Police Peter Mukhito who was dismissed by former president Joyce Banda without being re-assigned.

Our investigation also indicate former Army Commander, General Odillo, his former deputy Major General John Msonthi, former Deputy Inspector General Nelson Bophani, former Principal Secretary for Mining Dr. Leonard Kalindekafe who were fired by the incumbent President are also in a similar situation collecting monthly salaries and other benefits.

Our sources further revealed that while Msonthi is expected to retire next year, Odillo is expected to remain on government pay roll up to 2019 when he will retire.

The benefits of those senior officers include fuel, airtime and Masm health insurance.

Senior government officials on Grade D, as the former army commander, receive up to K666 000 per month while the others receive K366 000 per month.

“Kalindekafe was initially told he will be going to the Greenbelt Initiative but has just been given another letter to say he should remain at home. Bophani is in the process of being forced to retire but General Odillo will still be paid his salary,” said source.

Another case involves Dr. Kelita Kamoto, a Grade P2 former director at Ministry of Health, who is at home getting a salary for doing no work after she was ordered to start working in a ward at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on “orders from above” during the Joyce Banda administration.

Kamoto has protested her transfer as political and refused to take the post and government has been unable to take any action.

Secretary for Human Resource Management Sam Madula also confirmed that government indeed has been paying some fired officials because of the nature of their contracts but could not give names of the officers.

“Government is still looking for ways to re-assign some of these officials. This is so as the Civil Service has some officers who are permanent and pensionable and when they are replaced they wait for new appointment. So it is within their rights to be getting a salary. These people are still government employees although not assigned to specific duties, but government is looking for ways to address that,” said Madula.

But a top government employee speaking on condition of anonymity said the move was wasteful and abuse of the Civil Service.

“We as officials found it awkward but it’s political. The letters these people receive do not state that you have been fired. For example Mukhito was only told you have been replaced with so and so. They just go home and wait but since we are afraid of lawsuits, we continue paying them. A similar situation arose with former head of National Intelligence Service under Bingu wa Mutharika regime, Clement Kapalamula.

“He (Kapalamula) was also at home and getting his pay until a few government officials later convinced former president Joyce Banda to re-assign him and was subsequently deployed to Brazil. (Oliver) Kumbambe (former IG) is also being paid as IG while serving as deputy ambassador because that position was only given to him to save face. He only receives Foreign Service allowances as deputy ambassador in Germany but his salary is still that of Police IG,” said the source.

Mukhito, now director of State Residences, on Thursday confirmed receiving his IG salary from April 2012 following his dismissal up to March 2013 when he voluntarily retired.

Said Mukhito: “The information you have is 100 percent correct. In my case, I was just informed that I had been replaced as IG and that I had to leave my official house. I just left Area 30 and went to my private house but continued receiving pay.

“I later declined that I cannot serve the same administration later after they approached me with a diplomatic post. I refused because they had ill-treated me as IG, I could not accept to continue working with same administration that was ill-treating me. I stopped receiving my salary when I rejected that offer and decided to retire. I could not be going to meetings with the same people who were humiliating me.”

One of the recently fired senior officials who opted for anonymity also corroborated that he was still getting his money.

The development comes despite President Mutharika’s pledged during his inauguration speech not to fire anyone on political reasons.

Consumers Association of Malawi executive director John Kapito asked Parliament to discuss the matter to urgently look for a lasting solution.

“The challenge is that every new administration wants to bring in new people and would always bring in new people. What we need to do as a country is to start crafting the contracts of these senior officials in a manner that would allow smooth exist. The other short-term solution is for government to start redeploying every official who is removed so that they are productive elsewhere in government rather than just waste taxpayer money,” said Kapito.