No salary for councillors

Politicians planning to contest in Local Government Elections (LGEs) next year should do so knowing that they will not get any salary, The Nation has established.

The arrangement has attracted concerns from some district commissioners (DCs), a governance expert and political parties who warn that denying the grass roots politicians salaries could derail development activities in councils.

In an e-mail response, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development spokesperson Maganizo Mazeze said “councillors will have no salaries but monthly honoraria”.

But the ministry could not say how much the honoraria will be.

The revelation—coming nine months before Malawi goes to the ballot in the first ever Tripartite Elections scheduled for May 20 2014 to vote for president, members of Parliament (MPs) and councillors—is likely to surprise many given that the Bingu wa Mutharika administration postponed local government polls in 2006 citing the need to review their perks and laws as the reason.

Said Mazeze: “The ministry has come up with a revised package of all councillors’ incentives based on the rates that were applicable during the first group of councillors between 2000 and 2004. The package will be disseminated to the public immediately after approval by government.”

In the 2000-2005 tenure, councillors were receiving K1 000 sitting allowance per day during their meetings that usually lasted a day.

But there were serious problems that eventually led to most of them resigning, leaving councils disabled.

Some of those that remained squeezed themselves into council operational activities just to earn allowances and derailed activities if excluded from the per diem list, according to DCs and a local governance observer.

“You can imagine that in most cases, when you call them for meetings, they demanded that we start with AoB [any other business] and by that it meant discussing their perks,” said Salima DC Charles Kalemba.

Reduced wards

During the Mutharika regime, Parliament amended the Local Government Act, reducing the number of wards to two per constituency, a move local authorties say will increase the councillors’ responsibilities.

Kalemba hoped that in terms of resources for the councillors, “there will be something done from central government because it will now mean more work for the councillor.”

Mzuzu City Council chief executive officer Thomas Chirwa, who during the 2000-2005 tenure of councillors was Mangochi DC, said there will be need for sensitisation “because other people leave employment to become councillors thinking there is money.”

He said: “I recall we used to have problems with councillors who could come to the secretariat every day pretending they want to review some files just to ask for allowances at the end.”

Ntcheu DC Paul Kalilombe agreed that councils had problems even meeting councillors’ allowances such that “we had arrears because most councils could not raise funds.”

The amended local government law also gives MPs voting rights at council level, but Kalilombe thinks this will bring confusion. He explained that MPs could use their financial and political muscle to sway votes and distort outcomes at local levels that may affect communities.

“It would be better to have MPs vote at Parliament and remain non-voting members at council level because this will bring a lot of confusion in councils,” he said.

Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) national secretary Chris Chisoni said it is important that as the issue of salaries for councillors is coming up again, all questions on local governance and government structures need to be discussed with honesty.

Chisoni warned of dire consequences if councillors do not have salaries, saying: “The unsalaried councillors will work with less zeal as evidenced by dwindling levels of volunteerism in Malawi.”

“As a matter of fact, the last time we had councillors, they were holding more frequent meetings at their assemblies looking for more sitting allowances; they were gate keepers for most of the district-based project interventions. If a new project was being introduced in their localities and it had no sitting allowances for the councillors, such a project was bound to face serous ownership and participation challenges.

“As a result, instead of facilitating development processes, in some cases, councillors were stumbling blocks due to their unquenchable desire for financial benefits,” said Chisoni.

Councillors budget

In the current financial year, councillors will be in office for a month and one week as such the ministry says it has made a provision of about K15 million (about $37 500) under the councils’ consolidated budgets for councillors’ honoraria and oversight operations.

Mazeze said oversight operations include service committee meetings, development supervisory visits and financial management monitoring.

While People’s Party (PP) spokesperson Hophmally Makande said the party will sensitise its prospective council candidates to volunteerism, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) said it will be important to consider introducing incentives for councillors.

Said Makande: “After primaries, we will give them special training as a party so that they understand and if they can’t manage, they should be allowed to give room to others.”

UDF spokesperson Ken Ndanga said as a party, they have not been communicated to on the council remunerations.

On its part, MCP thinks “it will only be proper to have a salary for these people with the rising cost of living.”

MCP spokesperson Jolly Kalelo said: “We in MCP believe that life is more challenging now and this is public service.

“We expect that conditions will improve, including salaries and other perks. Councillors should have access to vehicle loans and fuel allowance because they will need a lot of travel this time around.”

To avoid clashes between councillors and other local structures such as MPs as experienced during the 2000 to 2005 council tenure, the Ministry of Local Government has scheduled some orientation sessions.

These will include training for councillors themselves and other players such as DCs, CEOs, MPs, members of development committees and traditional leaders.

“When councillors are elected in May 2014, they shall be trained in their roles, including the role of Council Service Committees. In addition, there will also be general public education through the media, music and drama.

“This will assist the public to appreciate the roles of councillors and their relationship with other stakeholders in the council,” said Mazeze.

Government has budgeted K2.5 billion (about $6.5m) for these activities, according to Mazeze.

Although the law says MPs are members of the council, government says “they will not receive honoraria because they are already catered for by Parliament.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Local Government has lined up a wish list to improve the effectiveness of councils.

Among them is comprehensive review of the Local Government Act “to clearly define the roles of councillors and strengthen the local government system in Malawi.”

But such reviews will not benefit the incoming crop of councillors because, according to the ministry, such an overhaul can only come within the next election cycle.