Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) has urged government to devolve human resource management funds for local authorities to address issues of staff recruitment and promotion facing councils.
The association’s call follows demands for promotions made by about 4 390 clinicians working in various capacities in district councils nationwide to correspond with their upgraded qualifications.
Malga has further urged government to start funding the Local Government Service Commission (LGSC) for it to effectively discharge its constitutional and legislative mandate.
In a written comment on Friday, Malga executive director Hadrod Mkandawire noted that the LGSC, despite being a cost centre, does not get funding for recruitment and promotional interviews for local authorities.
He said that being the case, the local authorities fund all expenses of the commission for it to facilitate the recruitment of new staff and effect promotions.
“However, the local authorities do not have any budget line for human resource management, including recruitment and promotion expenses.
“This leaves councils with no option, but to use the already constrained ORT [Other Recurrent Transactions] and where not possible to use ORT, the process does not proceed,” he said.
He said it was strange that the funds for recruitment and promotion processes, including interviews, are still anchored by the central government despite that the function rests with the local authorities.
Treasury spokesperson Williams Banda said funding for LGSC is the responsibility of the Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture.
Local Government Minister Richard Chimwendo Banda was yet to respond to our questionnaire by press time yesterday.
Last week, Physician Assistants Union of Malawi president Solomon Chomba said the number of clinicians deserving promotions could be more with some staying in service for 11 to 18 years without a rise.
He said their records show that 53.9 percent of the workers have not had any promotion attempt while 46.1 percent have had a chance, but were unsuccessful.
The cadres include medical assistants, clinical technicians, clinical officers, clinical associates, dental therapists, medical technicians, laboratory assistants, laboratory technicians and dermatology officers.
Chomba said medical assistants deserving Grade HK were still in Grade HL while diploma clinical officers who should have risen to either Grade HJ or HI were stuck in Grade HK.
On the other hand, clinical officers with a bachelor’s degree were still in Grades L and K when they should have been promoted to Grades I and H, he added.
