* The Ministry has said they are facing challenges such as lack of funding, effects of devaluation and others
* But they need to hasten the processes as they have promised to address them so that people are helped in the communities—MP Lipipa
* Also not satisfied with service delivery is Parliamentary Committee on International Relations
* Which expressed its dissatisfaction with the inspection done by the Ministry of Labour in various work places
By Prisca Promise Mashushu, Pempho Kantayeni & Pickson Chipeso MANA
The Parliament Committee on Transport & Public Works has expressed dissatisfaction over the delay to complete road construction projects across the country.
This was observed yesterday when the Parliamentary Committee met at Parliament in Lilongwe yesterday by chairperson, Noel Lipipa, who said it is sad that the construction works for roads such as Nkhotakota, Mangochi, among others, have halted for a long time giving no hope of having them completed.
He said even though the Ministry of Transport has singled out devaluation and lack of funding as reasons for the delay, they needed to expedite the processes for the sake of progress on the road projects.
“The Ministry has said they are facing challenges such as lack of funding, effects of devaluation and others but they need to hasten the processes as they have promised to address them so that people are helped in the communities,” Lipipa said.
The Parliamentary Committee on Transport & Public Works
On his part, Secretary to the Ministry of Transport & Public Works, Madalo Mwambose said despite the challenges, they are working hard to address the issues of delayed funding.
“As a Ministry, we are trying our level best in order to address issues of delay in the construction of the roads in different parts of the country,” he said. “For roads to be constructed, it requires many issues to be addressed before physically implementing it on the ground.
“Malawians should be rest assured on this that, as a Ministry, we are in the process of finishing some other roads in different parts of the country,” Mwambose said.
Also not satisfied with service delivery is Parliamentary Committee on International Relations, which expressed its dissatisfaction with the inspection done by the Ministry of Labour in various work places.
After meeting officials from the Ministry of Labour at Parliament also yesterday, chairperson for the committee, Patrick Bandawe said the committee was not impressed with how the Ministry is handling inspections of some work places.
“As Members of Parliament, we have observed that they are not doing enough when it comes to inspection, as a result, a lot of working places do not have the standards that they deserve,” Bandawe said.
He added that the committee also raised concerns on the recent protests Israel job seekers had on the government, adding that some members of the committee did not like how the issue was handled to the point where some of the youths that publicly protested were arrested.
MP Patrick Bandawe
In her remarks, Secretary for Ministry of Labour, Chikondano Mussa said they were invited by the committee to give them progress on what the Ministry is doing on Convention 111, Convention 100 and others, to look into the issues of discrimination in work places, equal remuneration and forced labour.
“So, we have given Parliament the progress report on what we have made,” she said. “These are ratified conventions by the country and therefore we have regulations to facilitate adherence to the same.
“We have shared with Parliament many issues that the Ministry is doing. We have shared that we carry out regular inspections to various work places to ensure that people are complying in terms of discrimination, that there’s no discrimination and people should not be recruited based on sex, religion and ethnicity.
“This is what we check when we go out, we want to go into a company or industry and find out if there is equal opportunity,” Mussa said, adding that they have also shown Parliament that through the same inspections, they are able to ensure that companies and all work places both private and public are complying to issues of health and safety at work.
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Mussa also addressed the concerns raised by the youth who protested against the government’s involvement in job placements in Israel by halting its recruitment efforts and allow private recruiters to handle the process instead.
Mussa stated that the reasons for this demand have been acknowledged and that the Ministry of Information is yet to release an official government statement on this.
She explained that the Ministry of Labour is responsible for overseeing and implementing labor export programs, as per the memorandum of understanding (MoU), which states that the recruitment of workers for farms in Israel is managed by the Malawian government under the Ministry of Labour.
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However, recent protests by job seekers have called for the Ministry of Labour to stop conducting the recruitment and instead allow private recruiters to take over the process.
This raises questions about who has the authority to decide that the recruitment should shift from the government to private recruiters.
The current program is government-to-government, with Israel specifically requesting that the Malawian government handle recruitment. Therefore, any decision to change to private recruiters would need to be agreed upon by Israel.—Edited by Maravi Express
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