Worry not about the leakage; worry about contents of Silungwe’s letter
The letter Attorney General Dr Chikosa Silungwe wrote to Vice-President Saulos Chilima, Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Zangazanga Chikhosi and all heads of public institutions may, as they love to call it, an internal one, not meant for the public. 
In the letter, dated August 20 2020, Silungwe warned those he was writing to against poorly-drafted contracts, unlawful dismissals and reckless redeployment as such tendencies have cost taxpayers K29 billion between 2018 and 2020.
However, just by revealing how much we, as taxpayers, have lost due to poor decision making by those entrusted with leadership, Silungwe’s letter ceases to be an internal one.
What Silungwe’s letter reveals is a depth of administrative rot deeply entrenched in the country’s public service sector.
He is telling us that, hey, we have enough money to efficiently run our hospitals, our schools, our social protection systems; but that money is wrongly used to cover up administrative errors of those entrusted to manage of our public service sector.
Such a letter, fellow Malawians, isn’t supposed to be internal; it must be a public document.
In fact, Silungwe must be faulted for making that important letter as an internal one. Had it not leaked, Malawians would have never known that administrative mishaps within our public are that costly.
Thank God that memo leaked and whoever leaked it must be decorated as a champion of transparency and accountability.
That is why you must be shocked to read, especially on social media, some zealots busy debating the politics around the leakage of the letter, not the important public details that the letter contains.
They are even accusing Silungwe of disloyalty, saying he has deliberately leaked the letter for reasons better known to silly politics they are so addicted and prisoned to.
If such ‘leakage zealots’ don’t know, the contents of the letter Silungwe contains important information for the public to know how they are being governed.
It is in the spirit of accessing such information, that is why, as a nation, we pushed for Access to Information law to ensure that the public has access to vital information needed in pursuit of holding our government responsible for every action they take.
For this, kudos to Silungwe; but next time, don’t make such letters internal—do a press statement.
For now Silungwe is the man of the moment in this government.
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Nyasa editor, your writing is so mature! Why don’t you edit all those reporters articles before they get published? Am sure you will do something
The campaigners for multi party democracy, Late Chakufwa Chihana, Mapopa Chipeta, Ahmed Dassu and other colleagues left democracy half cooked. Look at the corruption and theft of public resources under democracy. Democracy is fast failing us and we must stop the slide into abyss
I’m an alien living in Malawi. I just wanna say, I thank you, the People of Malawi, and trough you, the Government of Malawi for making this such a wonderful place to live in. Sun shines brighter in Malawi.
Always,
Happy Sunshines
Malik letter is read and very touching.But the President and his vice should clearly know that there are many uneducated people who voted in their favour and this is so dangerous to democracy and they should be very careful with the matter. A few educated ones voted for them into power and some did not even attend any of their campaign meetings only laughed many from their meetings.Today, those you call educated ones are in your good positions. Note, this carefully otherwise try yourselves to mixed bag. We voted for change and made it but there should not be any segregation on the matter.Five years or so is not far when all things are going smoothly and please take your bag in a mixed bag. We are not interested with thieves,those who stole government money which is now called Tax payers money.In many organizations there are thieves and the reforms activities should be live. Also, have not heard you the newly appointed Ministers to later turn events into Private Sectors like Multichoice Malawi apart from Airtel and Tnm companies.Do you know that many companies charge their customers in Dollars and they follow the trend of that currency or may be because all from some of you is on free cost.
Funny, the writer is against the spirit of his own write up.
To me he is just as good as the Social media zealots he is talking about.
First of all it is important to clarify that the K29 billion is a bill incurred by the previous regimes and not the Tonse alliance government. What Sulungwe has done is to warn the current regime to avoid the same mistakes that the previous regimes committed.
Secondly I am concerned that this is now a second time that we have seen government confidential letters leaking from Sulungwes office and the question I have is who is behind these leakages and for what motive.
Mr Sulungwe should sort out this unpatriotic behaviour from his office or the buck stops with him……
Chilima rein over the rot at Road Traffic. The department is completely rotten and we have cofidence in you tha you will deal with this nosense.
taxpayers money.
mpaka housemaid
jomo
ka namwali kanyawani kaku machinga kaja kupita ku UNGA ndi mbwiyawo oodzera uja.
Bravo Mtanga
Zayambikaaaaaas🐕🦺🐕🦺🐕🦺🐒🐒
Zinayambika kale Koma izi akuti from 2018- 2020 the tonse alliance are only in government for 61 days this is just a warning or lesson to learn from what happened in this period from 2018-2020 .
It is clear from the reactions on social media that they are a few of enemies of progress in MCP , whose intent is to syphon government funds the same way DPP mafia stole public funds.
What seems to have offered them is not only the employment issue but the fact that all contracts should pass through the Attorney Generals Office.
Munya simunati, mutuwa..not under Tonse government of Chakwera and Chilima.
Achina Gogo ndani ndani munthu osaphuzira alimbu what can you contribute in public service?
The money in question was wasted during the Mutharika regime and not the current government. During that time Kalekeni Kaphale was the attorney general and not Silungwe and no one can accuse him of being disloyal to the current government. Dr Silungwe’s letter go a long way in proving what we already know that Kalekeni Kaphale was a political condom for Mutharika and his allegiance was not the flag we all bow to.
Your article is deliberately misleading to insinuate that the 29 billion figure was paid out by the current government due to its own illegal dealings. Get a life.
Ndawelenga bobo ndipo am seeing any sentence where the write is indirectly pointing at the new government rather specifically mention the financial year under review. Zealotry should not make you blind
Not***
Writer***
From 2018 to 2020 Who was governing Malawi
Already general lapken namathanga, very capable and decorated officer will get compensation in millions. Tonse trial and error will make people rich from dismissals
Namathanga will not get millions.
His appointment was illegal and therefore more likely invalid.
If am correct all appointments to the position of Head of the military must be approved by a military council (or something similar).
As usual the professor from Chicago skipped this part.
Namathanga as a military man should have know his appointment was illegal.
He has no standing in law, those who come to equity must come with clear hands.
Only the deputies and not the general. Whether he was legally or illegally appointed is none of his fault. He still remains a general after his firing. If he was on contract or had 5 years to retire, he is entitled to his remuneration remaining.
I don’t understand what the president wanted to achieve with that decision. Nundwe is already due for retirement. The guy already served 41 years of service. Namathanga cannot be demoted. It means he will still be getting his benefits. That’s the problem when you are focusing too much on the past.