Zanga-Zanga Chikhosi relieved of his post as Secretary to the President; Replaced by head of Presidential Delivery Unit, Colleen Zamba

Colleen Zamba 

* As President Chakwera builds a robust monitoring system that ensures strict adherence to control government spending

* I know that the realignment of the kwacha is painful, but it’s because we are putting a dislocated joint back in its place

* Both decisions are part of our ongoing efforts to cure our economy of the failed economic policies of the past

By Duncan Mlanjira

In announcing strict measures on government spending, President Lazarus Chakwera has relieved Zanga-Zanga Chikhosi of his post as Secretary to the President and replaced by head of Presidential Delivery Unit Colleen Zamba.

Making the announcement on Tuesday night in his national address after returning from Davos, Switzerland and Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Chakwera said the move was to build a robust monitoring system that ensures strict adherence to these measures and other directives in all government ministries, agencies and departments (MDAs).

He said Chikhosi would be deployed elsewhere and said Zamba would communicate other spending control measures in due course.

He first explained his decision to devalue the kwacha was painful — taking cognizance of the anticipated rise in the cost of imported good that would affect the economy and he explained that he gave the Minister of Finance a list of public spending cuts to start implementing this June.

“Both decisions are part of our ongoing efforts to cure our economy of the failed economic policies of the past,” he said. “I know that the realignment of the kwacha is painful, but it’s because we are putting a dislocated joint back in its place.

“It is the right thing to do. Having a misaligned exchange rate was making our economy worse by the day, especially for importers whose businesses were getting paralyzed.

“Three weeks ago I had publicly said that I would put in place painful measures that are necessary for long-term economic recovery, and this realignment is one of those measures.

“Now that the dislocated joint of the exchange rate has been aligned, the spending cuts I outlined to the Minister will be enforced. I know that the realignment of the exchange rate inflicts pain on all of you, because any increase in the price of imported commodities forces you to cut your spending.

“So it is important that we, who are your public servants do the same, because the pain of making spending cuts due to the global rise in prices must be shared.”

The measures to cut public spending — not subject to amendment by any Government Ministry, Agency, Department or Parastatal without prior authorization from the Office of the President — are:

1) Public officers, including the President, who need to travel abroad for their work out of absolute necessity will only be allowed to take no more than three trips during the remainder of the year, unless in cases of unforeseen extreme emergency;

2) The number of people in a delegation travelling abroad will be subjected to stringent restrictions;

3) No top-up allowances will be paid to public officers on fully funded trips for work, training, workshops or conferences;

4) Ministry officials traveling within the region for work must fly economy class;

5) All controlling officers will be held responsible for ensuring strict adherence to spending limits we have set for domestic travel;

6) All boards of state-owned enterprises and statutory corporations must confine themselves to quarterly meetings, plus one extraordinary meeting per quarter for emergency situations pursuant to the approval of the line Minister, unless allowed otherwise by the President’s office;

7) Allocations of fuel allowance for all Cabinet Members is to be cut by 20%;

8) The issuance of fuel to public officers who are not entitled to the same is forbidden, and my office will soon provide detailed guidelines on how this will be regulated;

9) The Minister of Transport is directed to provide guidelines to MDAs for the Government-wide adoption of distance charts to regulate fuel consumption per vehicle;

10) The movement of pool vehicles owned by the Government beyond 6pm shall be restricted, and no driver shall be permitted to take such vehicles to their homes, and controlling officers must justify to my office any emergency exceptions to be made;

11) Procurement of new vehicles by MDAs has forthwith been suspended until further notice from the President’s office, and when this restriction is lifted, his office will regulate what model of vehicles are procured for public officers of different grades to end the culture of people feeling entitled to 4x4s;

12) To end the practice of public officers driving Government vehicles they are not authorized to, all public officers authorized to self-drive will soon be issued with an authorization card to be enforced on the roads by the police;

13) The renewal or signing of new employment contracts in all state-owned enterprises is forbidden forthwith, except for special circumstances that must be approved by the President’s office, and this restriction will not be lifted until the Office of the Comptroller of Statutory Corporations is done reviewing the remuneration in this sector to ensure that it reflects the state of the economy and the performance of the institution;

14) No procuring entity in the Government shall be allowed to import goods or services into the country unless proof that the goods and services cannot be procured locally is submitted to and approved by the Minister of Finance.

Responding to some issues during the national address, Minister of Finance Sosten Gwengwe said together with all government controlling officers, his Ministry will make sure these financial restrictions as directed by the president are being adhered to in all government MDAs.

He further Said since devaluation of the kwacha, the dollar inflow has started stabilising and he has since warned banks not to do any exchange of the dollar that is not in line with the Reserve Bank of Malawi exchange rate.

Also present was Ministers of Foreign Affairs; Finance & Economic Affairs; Justice and Health, who also responded to specific questions relating to their Ministries.—Additional reporting by Malawi News Agency (MANA)