Kabambe threatens legalaction over ‘free salary’
Former Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) governor Dalitso Kabambe has threatened to sue the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) if it continues paying him for a position he rejected.
According to a story in our sister paper Weekend Nation yesterday, government has for the past three years been paying Kabambe a salary of Principal Secretary (PS) in the OPC despite not reporting for duty.
Nation on Sunday has obtained a copy of one of the correspondences Kabambe, a Democratic Progressive Party presidential aspirant, exchanged with the OPC.
“I further wish to demand that from this date onwards, no further salaries should be deposited into my personal account domiciled at Standard Bank.
“Should government continue to pay me those salaries into this account, I will be forced to either close the account entirely or put a stop order to it,” he said in a letter dated 20 April 2023.
Kabambe’s lawyer Kalekeni Kaphale confirmed the payments he described as strange. He added that the former governor has been writing to the OPC on the issue but declined to divulge the details.
However, the letter which we have seen shows that Kabambe wrote two other letters before informing the OPC that he is no longer in the civil service.
“I write to follow up on two previous letters one done by my Attorney’s T.F & Partners dated 10th November 2020 and the other by the undersigned on 8th January 2021 regarding my retirement from Civil Service,” reads the letter in part.
Following his removal as head of the central bank by President Lazarus Chakwera on July 17 2020, government wrote Kabambe to resume his civil service career as PS at OPC as a de-secondment.
But in August 2020, Zodiak Broadcasting Station quoted Kabambe as saying he refused to go to OPC because the relocation was political.
PSs fall under grade C in the civil service with a monthly salary of around K1.8 million which translates to K63 million paid over the last 35 months.
After his removal as RBM governor, Kabambe filed a Kl billion claim from the central bank as terminal benefits and breach of contract. He had nine months and 16 days remaining at the time he was replaced by the current RBM Wilson Banda.
Government argues that Kabambe was appointed RBM governor on secondment from mainstream civil service where he worked at the Ministry of Foreign as such he is not entitled to the pay-out.
However, Kabambe argues in the letter, that he retired from the civil service in 2017 following his appointment as RBM governors.
“I, therefore, wish to reiterate my position that what I need to be paid are my retirement dues as at 21 April 2017 and monthly pensions and that all the salaries which have been paid to me since November 2020 should be netted off from the retirement dues,” further reads the letter with an OPC stamp, as approval of receipt.
OPC had not responded to our questionnaire on the contents of the letter. However, its spokesperson Robert Kalindiza told Weekend Nation that he could not comment further after confirming being aware of the PS salary payments.
