NSO enumerators threaten boycott

Supervisors and enumerators for the 2018 Malawi Population and Housing Census (PHC) on Thursday threatened to boycott their work if their grievances are not resolved by tomorrow.

The supervisors and enumerators met at St Jones Primary School in Lilongwe where they resolved to give National Statistics Office (NSO) until Tuesday (tomorrow) to sort out their training allowances, among other grievances.

One of the supervisors, who opted for anonymity, said there are various challenges that are affecting their work.

In a letter made available to Malawi News Agency, the supervisors and enumerators mention airtime, tablets for supervisors, security, unpaid training allowances and need for identification cards as grievances.

“We participated in a six-day training for which we were supposed to be paid K120 000, but so far we have only been given K20 000,” the letter reads in part.

Supervisors are also demanding tablets which have only been given to enumerators.

“Now we have started work in the field, but some of the enumerators’ tablets are not functioning well to the point that data collected of close to 15 households has been lost before sending it to the control centre supervisor,” the letter further reads.

In his response, NSO spokesperson Kingsley Manda said the office would provide airtime by next week, saying each supervisor will be given K15 000 for airtime and money for transport.

On the unpaid training allowances, he said: “NSO has paid 90 percent of training allowances. Those that have not received their allowances had not finalised the process of opening the bank accounts. By next week, everyone will have the allowances.”

The 2018 Population and Housing Census started on September 3 and is expected to run for 21 days.