Treasury rebuffs judiciary

Treasury has put its foot down on the Judiciary’s demands which included a new Toyota VX V8 engine vehicle for the Chief Justice and a new fleet for judges amounting to K1.6 billion.

Treasury says the demands will not be met due to the “difficult financial position the country is in at the moment”.

The demands of the Judiciary are contained in a letter which Supreme Court of Appeal judge Lovemore Chikopa, who chairs the Working Committee on the Terms and Conditions of Service of the Judiciary, wrote to the Attorney General copied to Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Chief Secretary to the Government, Solicitor General, principal secretary for the Department of Human Resource Management and Development (DHRMD), chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament and Ministry of Finance budget director.

Titled ‘Brief Report on Meeting between Judiciary Staff, Minister of Finance and Attorney General on Housing Allowances and Vehicles’, Chikopa says  government had undertaken to “immediately” buy a new vehicle for the Chief Justice, a Toyota VX V8, but Treasury has said that will not happen.

Chikopa’s letter further states that conditions of service for the Judiciary state  that they get new vehicles once the old ones clock 150 000 kilometres and are four years old.

Reads in part Chikopa’s strongly worded letter: “Government is, in so far as it has not replaced such motor vehicles, in breach of their Lordships’ Terms and Conditions of Service.

“For the newly appointed judges, our position remains that they are entitled to new vehicles. The Judiciary, therefore, feels obliged to insist that government complies to the letter with their Lordships’ Terms and Conditions of Service.”

According to a memo we have seen which the registrar of the High Court of Malawi and Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal wrote to the Secretary to the Treasury dated August 5 2014, the 36 vehicles for judges were expected to cost K1 611 022 629, including duty as per a quotation from Toyota Malawi.

In the memo, the registrar was reminding Treasury that the vehicles would have to be replaced in the 2014/15 financial year.

The Judiciary has also asked government to implement a salary adjustment for its staff to correspond with that of the civil service, as per Clause 44 (2) of the Judiciary’s conditions of service, but with agreed percentages specifically for the Judiciary.

Chikopa said the conditions of service they want implemented were determined by Parliament and “cannot be changed to the detriment of such officers without their concerns”.

This is the root of the ongoing strike which enters its fourth week on Monday with no end in sight as judges are set to join any day.

The long-standing issue of housing allowances, over which the Judiciary staged a strike in May this year, is yet to be addressed, according to the Judiciary.

“We wish to inform you that the National Assembly has approved that judicial officers should be provided with free housing or housing allowance if a house is not provided,” the memo reads.

To implement this, Treasury released K200.3 million to pay housing allowance arrears from January 2014 when the new conditions were approved to June 2014, then an additional  K405.4 million for the 2014/15 financial year.

Then Judiciary also proposed to the Judicial Service Commission free housing or housing allowance for Judiciary staff, excluding judges.

To fund this proposal, Treasury parted with K362 million to pay for arrears and allocated K723 million for 2014/15 financial year.

“We shall be very grateful if adequate resources are provided for in the 2014/15 financial year for the procurement of judges’ vehicles and payment of housing allowances,” reads the memo signed on behalf of the registrar by the chief courts administrator R.B.C Moyo.

But Ministry of Finance spokesperson Nations Msowoya said much as the requirement to replace vehicles after 150 000 kms applied to everyone in government, the current  economic situation did not allow buying of vehicles.

Said Msowoya: “For your information, even the Vice-President of the Republic of Malawi, the Right Honourable [Saulos] Chilima had to forgo a new vehicle because of the difficult financial position facing government at the moment. This information was communicated to the Judiciary.”

Treasury did not include the allocation for new vehicles in the Judiciary vote, he said.

Added Msowoya: “The government is not replacing or buying new vehicles this financial year because of the difficult financial situation. What the government will do is to look for vehicles from the existing fleet and re-allocate some to the new judges. For your information, even Cabinet ministers had to be allocated vehicles from the existing fleet.”

He added that only the Malawi Police Service (MPS) was getting new vehicles this financial year.

On the Chief Justice’s new vehicle, Msowoya said there were no plans to buy incumbent Anastazia Msosa a Toyota VX V8, but Treasury was considering to identify within the existing government stock of vehicles a vehicle befitting the status of the Chief Justice.

There is a likelihood that the Judiciary will not get the housing allowances and free housing which is forming part of the negotiations currently underway because government adopted a clean wage policy in 2006 which also applies to Judiciary.

However, registrar and Judiciary spokesperson Joseph Chigona said they only wanted implementation of existing and approved terms and conditions of service.

Specifically, the judges want government to adhere to Clause 44(2) of Terms and Conditions of Service for Judicial Officers which states that “whenever there is a general increase in salaries and allowances in the civil service the salary and allowances of a Judicial Officer shall correspondingly be increased.”

On the request for new vehicles, Chigona said some of the vehicles were due for replacement in April 2014.

“The Judiciary will deal with non-compliance with such a term in the same fashion it has and will continue to deal with other terms and conditions of service that remain outstanding,” he said when asked what the Judiciary would do next.

On the Chief Justice’s new vehicle, Chigona confirmed that the CJ was entitled to a Toyota Prado VX V8

A Supreme Court judge is entitled to a Toyota Prado VX and a High Court judge a Toyota Prado TX.

The Judiciary was allocated about K4 billion from the K737 billion 2014/15 national budget, including personal emoluments and other recurrent transactions.

Apart from demands for new vehicles for judges and free housing for staff, the Judiciary also wants salaries reviewed for Judiciary support staff, ranging from 18 percent to 86 percent, rebuffing government’s efforts at harmonisation of salaries in the civil service.

The Judiciary also wants salaries for judges adjusted to include that the Chief Justice’s current salary of K1.5 million be increased by 75 percent to K2.6 million, rejecting the proposed K1.7 million by government to be at par with the Chief Secretary to the Government.

Further, the Judiciary wants a Supreme Court judge to have a 110 percent increase in their package, a 78 percent increase for High Court judges and a 78 percent increase for the registrar.