Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU) says it will continue pushing government to remove disparities in public sector remuneration which are deepening inequality among public servants.
Meanwhile, financial policy and corporate law experts say the disparities are also spiking the wage bill and weakening productivity in the public service.
In an interview Thursday, CSTU president, Lameck Magawa, said his organisation is strategizing to take the National Remuneration Commission (NRC) Bill, developed by the Attorney General in 2017 back to Parliament. The Bill which was rejected by Parliament, sought to provide the legal framework for the establishment of a commission whose mandate would be to harmonise public sector remuneration.
According to the 2017 draft Bill, the commission was supposed to come up with clear provisions for the procedures to be followed when determining remuneration in all public bodies.
The development followed the Civil Servants Trade Union (CSTU) petition to Parliament in 2013, to push the lawmakers to debate and pass a Bill to harmonsie public sector remuneration.
Magawa said that since the House’s rejection nothing has moved to take back the Bill to Parliament, arguing that the absence of the commission is making the issue of salary increments in the service to be done in a haphazard manner and with no clear procedures.
“For example, the Judiciary, Parliament and other constitutional bodies who are funded by Treasury providers and not commercial entities so why should they be treated differently?
Statistics show the disparities have persisted since 1993 due to government’s failure to implement its own recommendations made following studies conducted on the issue.
Government, with funding from the World Bank, instituted the first study in 1993 titled Malawi Civil Service Pay and Employment whose major recommendation was the harmonisation of remuneration in the service.
Another study, titled Medium Term Pay Policy, was conducted in 2003 and its key proposal was the establishment of an independent institution responsible for remuneration.
In 2006, the Bingu wa Mutharika administration established the Public Service Remuneration Board but it was unable to effectively execute its mandate due to the absence of an enabling legal framework.
However, nine years later, government remains indecisive on turning round the trend of the alarming remuneration disparities for officers on same grade and qualifications with differences, in some instances, exceeding K2 million.
Magawa said the union would soon start strategising to ensure the matter is resolved by pushing for the re-tabling of the Bill.
“That is why as CSTU we want to revive the issue and push for the Bill until it is taken to Parliament and we have the commission in place.
“We believe this is the only channel that will not only spearhead but also speed up the salary harmonisation process. The conditions of service and salaries of the public sector across the board must be uniform,” he said.
Magawa said during the immediate past administration he picked up the matter with the then Principal Secretary for Department of Human Resource Management and Development Ian Chingwalu.
“The PS expressed willingness to support us to take the matter back to Parliament. The issue was that this time we need representatives from the Executive, Judiciary and Legislature and other stakeholders… Though not much is being done but on the ground everybody is calling for that,” he said.
Weekend Nation inquired from three Parliamentary committees’ chairperson namely; Legal Affairs, Public Affairs (PAC) and Commissions, Statutory Corporations and State Enterprises to explain how they were addressing the issue.
But only Legal Affairs Committee chairperson Gilbert Khonyongwa responded and said passage of any Bill into law is a collective effort of the institution of Parliament and not just for a particular committee.
Khonyongwa said if the matter was to be brought before the Legal Affairs Committee, his committee would enquire into it by engaging relevant stakeholders such as the DHRMD, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and other affected institutions.
“The committee would then come up with a report containing findings and recommendations which would be presented in the House,” he said.
We failed to get any comments from the chairpersons of Public Affairs Committee (PAC) and Commissions, Statutory Corporations and State Enterprises Felix Njawala and Ayuba James, respectively, despite promising to do so.
An analysis, based on programme-based budget document Number Five, and investigations our sister paper The Nation conducted in 2024 found that salary differences in the service were more glaring from Grade A designated to the Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) and the Chief Justice.
For instance, the paper found that in the 2023/24 fiscal year, the SPC’s monthly salary was projected at K4.4 million against K4 million for the Chief Justice.
On Grade B, director general (DG) of National Intelligence Service (NIS) was getting K2.7 million against K2.6 million for the State Residences chief of staff and K2.5 million for the Inspector General of Police.
According to the findings, the Clerk of Parliament (CoP) was on Grade C alongside the Principal Secretaries (PSs) but was then receiving K4.5 million a month against the othercontrolling officers who were getting K3.5 million and below.
From the investigation, the CoP’s estimated pay was higher than the SPC and Chief Justice who were two grades up.
For the six governance institutions, the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) DG was the highest paid at K3.9 million with the head of the Office of Public Declaration of Assets being the lowest getting home K2.1 million.
Similarly, some chief executive officers (CEOs) for State Owned Enterprises of the same category had better packages getting K9 million per month while others were just around K2 million.
Former PAC chairperson the late Joyce Chitsulo conceded then they registered complaints from the Malawi Law Commission, Malawi Legal Aid Bureau and Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) who wanted their perks to be at par with others of similar nature.
DHRMD spokesperson Ken Ntonga said following the flop of the Bill in 2017, the department has continued handling al l issues pertaining to civil service remuneration as mandated by the Publis Sercice Act, sections 15, 17 and 19.
“The 2017 Bill was menat to create that commission and bring some changes one of which was to harmonise publis service salaries.
“Before the Bill, there were salary disparities and the department was handling the issues the same way it is handling them today. That is why each parastatal has its own salary scale structure. So the department has not done anything on harmonisation.”
The 2025/26 recurrent expenditure shows the wage bill is projected at K1.6 trillion, consuming almost 25 percent of the national purse and 38 percent of all domestic tax revenue.
Corporate law and governance expert James Kaphale cautioned the disparities would continue haunting government until it decides to establish an independent public sector remuneration body.
He said: “The absence of a National Remuneration Commission affects accountability and pay equity in that there are no checks and balances in the public sector remuneration which would have been provided by the commission.”
Also commenting on the issue, South African based Malawian financial policy analyst Edson Zimba observed the absence of a legally empowered and independent wage setting mechanism had posed serious fiscal risks and weakened productivity in public service.
He also noted persistent pay dispar i t ies have encouraged fragmented bargaining and allowed remuneration decisions to be driven by institutional leverage rather than coherent economic benchmarks or job value assessments.
