Malawi govt bows down to Civil Service Trade Union demands

Government has finally bowed down to Civil Service Trade Union demands to exempt civil servants from presenting bank statements and letters of appointments during the ongoing head count.

Civil servants are instead allowed to present less demanding payslips and academic qualifications certificates.

Officials from the union had aggressively argued that it was unrealistic to force civil servants present letters of appointments as some of the government employees had worked for many years and may have lost them whilst in some cases, government did not issue them at all.

Union officials also successfully argued that it was unfair to ask for bank statements as this attracts bank charges of an average K2500 per statement, a cost to be borne by the civil servants who did not initiate the exercise in the first place.

Meanwhile, the head count exercise, aimed at busting ghost workers and illegal recruitment in the civil service, is still going on.

There are reports that the exercise has exposed dubious recruitments and promotions in the ministries of health and agriculture but officials from the ministry of finance told Nyasa Times to wait until the exercise is over when a report will be issued.

Government has over 150 000 employees on its payroll, most of them teachers.

The Peter Mutharika administration is carrying out a public reform service programme aimed at making the civil service efficient and effective on the backdrop of massive looting of public money by some civil servants in the infamous cashgate scandal.