Ex-MYP members petition Joyce Banda
Former members of the disbanded Malawi Young Pioneers (MYP) have asked President Joyce Banda to probe government officers who were handling their compensation for premature retirement following the 1993 Operation Bwezani.
The members, who presented their 6-point petition through the Lilongwe district commissioner (DC) on Tuesday, allege that government officers colluded and successfully swindled treasury millions of kwacha in the name of ex-MYP compensation and pension payments when the actual former MYP members were suffering.
They are also accusing the group’s old committee of conniving with some government employees and some government officials of deliberate gross negligence and rejection of payment acts which has delayed payments of about 3 000 former MYP members.
“We observed fraud and ghosting of former MYP victims suspected to have been masterminded by top government officials and the committee,” claimed the group’s publicity secretary Hendrix Chijota.
The offices the ex-MYP members want probed are the office of Chief Secretary to the Government, the Office of the Deputy Chief Secretary, the office of the Principal Secretary to the Human Resource Management, the office of the Accountant General, Pensions Director, and the office of the Auditor General.
The former Young Pioneers are accusing the named offices of “deliberate gross negligence and rejection of very important observations on overwhelming acts as regards to the payment parade exercise and data used in November 2012, following observation of fraud and ghosting of ex-MYP victims suspected to have been masterminded by a cross section of top government officials and the committee that was led by Mr. Grey Chibaya Chisale.”
“We followed all the procedures to engage in series of discussions with the above mentioned offices as regards to the very same observations to stop using the old committee that paved way for the fake ex-MYPs to get away with government coffers as well as to stop using the data because it contained ghost ex-MYPs but to no avail,” reads the petition.
The former Pioneers further claim that the ghost ex-MYPs went away with huge sums of money yet in the data that was used in spotted pages, the genuine ex-MYPs could get a minimum of K1,500 retirement package and K5, 000 as average package.
The petition also calls on the President to consider premature retirement for the former Young Pioneers since they were severed from the Civil Service without their consent and that they suffered a lot of humiliation including women being raped in public.
“We also wish to appeal to you to consider us on the denominator because the one that was used that led to the genuine ex-MYPs to fail to get their package as expected is not bearing a true picture of pension package,” continues the petition.
Representative of the DC, Peter Dokali assured the former MYPs that the petition will be presented to the President.
There are around 4,000 ex-MYPs across the country, according to the petition signed by Pastor Pearson Banda, National Coordinator, Phillip Mwangonde, Vice Regional Coordinator North, Haclean Chilongo, Vice Secretary General and Collins Manyangala, Regional Coordinator Centre, among others.
Government, in late 2012 conceded to the ex-MYPs demands of pension, compensation and other payments after over 4 000 members marched to the OPC. –(Additional reporting by Mana)
