MEC officials to meet Finance Minister on delayed allowance
Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) officials say they have arranged a meeting this week with the Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe to discuss issues of delayed payment of drivers from government departments and other people who not yet honoured after working during and after the May polls.
The arrangement comes after a group of angry drivers on Monday morning stormed the MEC offices in the capital Lilongwe and sealed its offices in protest against the unreasonable delays of their payment.
In statement issued later in the day MEC’s Director of Media and Public Relations, Sangwani Mwafulirwa says is informing the drivers that the Commission is doing everything possible to ensure they have received their allowance.
“Funding for paying the drivers was supposed to come from the elections budget through the Treasury. However, the Commission has been unable to pay the drivers due to some technicalities. To that effect the Commission has arranged a meeting this week with the Minister of Finance to discuss this and other outstanding issues,” says Mwafulirwa.
He says the Commission will communicate the outcome of the meeting with the Minister of Finance on when the polling staff would be paid their dues.
“This will also include outstanding June salaries for District Elections, Coordinators, Constituency Returning Officers, Drivers, ICT Data Entry Clerks, Stringers, Constituency Civic and Voter Education Assistants and Warehouse Clerks,” he says.
Mwafulirwa emphasized that this does not affect teachers who worked on the polling day because their honorarium is being paid from the donor basket funding that is managed by UNDP.
Many teachers who worked on the polling day are also yet to get their allowances.
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