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Internship programme mired in challenges

The newly introduced K5 billion Youth Internship Programme (YIP) targeting graduates and non-graduates is mired in hiccups, including lack of work for the interns and limited resources, Nation on Sunday has established.

A Nation two-week enquiry, which took us to different ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), as well as random interviews with the interns and officials/supervisors, show how the train of internship programme is derailing.

The interns we talked to complained that they were not given any orientation, let alone assigned some work, three months after they reported for duties.

During our visit to various workplaces, we were able to corroborate the information as on a number of occasions we found the interns idling or doing other activities such as plaiting each other’s hair, attributing it to lack of work.

“We report for duties every morning and knock off without doing anything. We spend our time chatting among ourselves or on WhatsApp. It is frustrating to some of us who are willing to learn. This is why some abscond work because it is pointless coming here,” said one of the interns in the Ministry of Gender.

This was a shared concern among the group of eight we found at another workplace, sharing stories and cracking jokes.

At another office in Lilongwe, we found six female interns under a tree plaiting each other’s hair and they said they sit under a tree  daily because there is neither space in the office nor work to do.

 “We are tired of doing nothing. Some of us were really excited with the internship programme, but just imagine since we reported here, apart from welcoming us, we have not been involved in any activity. We hear our friends elsewhere undertake field trips and do the job they were employed for,” explained one of them.

When we contacted their supervisor, she was equally helpless, saying the office has two chairs only and without working equipment, such as computers.

“Secondly, this is an underfunded office I have activities once in a while and these are [sensitive] presidential functions where an intern cannot be allowed. So at the end, they have nothing to do,” explained a government official, sounding frustrated.

During our visits, we also came across cases of abscondment where an office is allocated 10 interns but only four are reporting for duties and the supervisors ccould not account for the others. When asked, the supervisors indicated that it was practically difficult to force interns to come to work, where is nothing to do.

“They use money every day to come to work where there is no work. It is absurd to force them to come to work. They are also not paid in time and we feel sorry to ask them to report for duties where they will not benefit,” said another civil servant at one of the government departments in Mzuzu.

Those posted in districts and rural areas away from their homes even have a tougher experience to sustain a life in the face of a delayed monthly allowance. Our interviews with interns in districts such as Mangochi, Chikwawa, Mchinji and Kasungu gave us an indication of the hardships.

A Mchinji-based intern said: “Survival is had since I have lots of bills to pay—from rent, electricity, water and also food. So, basically right now it’s my family helping to pay all the bills until I get my allowance.”

Last week, the recruiting Ministry of Labour, Youth and Manpower Development issued a statement warning interns against abscondment as well as imploring respective MDAs to give interns a chance to work.

Responding to our questionnaire, the Ministry’s public relations officer Christina Mkutumula said the ministry has just conducted a verification exercise, which has also noted issues of idleness and abscondment.

 She said the ministry will intensify supervision and control to keep the system in check and allow for more improvement.

The lack of work contradicts the provisions of the contractual agreement between government and the interns. Article 1 (a) of the contract asks the intern to devote the whole of his/her working time and attention to the service of the government and use his/her utmost endeavors to promote the interest of the government.

The contract also promises interns with a chance for short trainings (seminars/workshops) within the country, which only a lucky few have managed to attend, according to our findings.

But Mkutumula said delayed payment of allowances is as a result of the verification exercise the ministry has been carrying out to avoid ghost interns on the payroll.

“Not all interns have delayed stipend. The majority get paid on time, especially those who availed themselves for verification and had their accounts cleared by banks.

“Some faced problems because it took some time to authenticate their existence…note that we don’t allow workplaces to verify on their own to avoid irregularities,” she said.

On misplacement of some interns, Mkutumula said this was the case because they had nowhere to be placed “otherwise we were to drop them”.

She said they so far have 3 800 interns and they are still recruiting more despite the programme ending in six months.

This means some interns will participate in the programme in less than the required 10 months. Government spends up to K304 million every month for the 3 800 interns who are entitled to K80 000 monthly stipend.

When presenting the 2018/19 National Budget statement in Parliament, Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe announced the introduction of the K4.8 billion youth internship programme which would provide 5 000 youths between the ages of 18 and 30 work experience both in public service and private sector.

“The objective of this programme is to equip the youth withknowledge, skills and ethics as a way of nurturing them for a career in thecivil service as well as in the Private Sector. Basically, this will help in reducing unemployment among our youth thatthis country is currently experiencing,” said Gondwe in his presentation. 

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