Malawi Police Service is set to pay 53 police officers K441 million in salary arrears dating back to 2017 following a High Court of Malawi assessment of their case where they were left out in promotions.
High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal assistant registrar Brian Sambo made the assessment on October 30 2024 in a civil cause number 598 of 2018.
The assessment, which shows that K425 million was for salary arrears and K16 million costs for the case, followed a February 8 2022 judgement by High Court Judge Kenyatta Nyirenda ordering the Inspector General (IG) of Police through the office of the Attorney General (AG) to implement reforms Police introduced on July 1 2017.
The ruling ordered the IG to enforce the reforms in a uniform manner so that the officers’ grades and salaries should be adjusted two steps upwards.
During hearing of the assessment of costs where the AG’s office was not represented, the court determined that the officers through their lawyer Wilson Singini sufficiently demonstrated that government neglected the court ruling to promote them two steps up and instead assigned wrong grades to them.
The officers, according to the ruling, submitted that the wrong grades led to their loss of salaries, which could consequently lead to further loss of their due remuneration if left unresolved.
Reads the ruling: “For instance, in December 2021, Chitenthe Kachali was promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Police and his grade changed to PH and his basic salary was K356 780.
“He legitimately expected it to change two steps up to PF with a basic salary of K567 803, losing K211 023 after the implementation of the review. He expected his grade to go up to PF. However, in March 2022, his grade was adjusted to PG, therefore, he kept on losing K52 400.”
Sambo said if government had complied with Nyirenda’s ruling, Kachali would have been promoted to grade PF, a rank of Senior Superintendent of Police, earning him K616 577 as net pay per month.
“Due to the noncompliance, the said claimant has lost a total of K5 981 041. 92. The defendant has done this to almost all claimants. They assigned the grades they pleased and not what the court ordered,” he said.
Court documents show that the police carried out a functional review exercise in 2017, which led to changes in grades and implementation of pay hike across the board.
However, 155 graduate police officers felt sidelined from the arrangement and their efforts to push for pay rise did not yield results.
The AG, as government’s chief legal adviser, and IG were defendants in the civil case filed at Lilongwe Registry of the High Court.
The functional review, according to the officers’ submission to the court, saw some officers jumping two grades upwards in the set-up with, for instance, grade M officers (constables and sergeants) moving to grades L and K in that order.
The concerned graduates said in a previous interview that they did not receive any increment; hence, their decision to raise concerns with not only the Police Service Commission, but the Department of Human Resource Management and Development as well. However, their efforts did not succeed.
There were initially 155 claimants, but 100 officers opted out of the case allegedly due to intimidation within the system.
