Africa-Press – Zambia. I have noted with gratitude the article on sitting allowances written by my good friend who not too long ago was a civil servant himself and now a politician.
I want to make it clear that what I have written here is my personal views and that the said views herein do not represent the position of the UPND Alliance nor the Government. This is strictly a whatsapp conversation meant for social and not official consumption.
Let me begin by agreeing with him (Mwamba) firstly that, Yes, Sitting Allowances for civil servants, were abolished in 2012. However, other allowances remained such as Subsistence and Out of Pocket among various others. And the President did not call out a specific allowance like sitting allowance but rather mentioned allowances in general meaning, this can relate to but not explicitly sitting allowance only.
So do senior civil servants and officials still receive allowances beyond the ban of allowances such as sitting allowance from 2012? Yes they do and this is what happens, the organisers of these meetings and workshops who are junior to middle management civil servants whom we shall reffer to as the “tu chawa committee”, would go out of their way to impress the “clique” by ensuring one way or another, they still got Govt money into their pockets even on an ordinary working day.
How? The tu chawa committee would organize meetings and/or workshops involving Government Officials at venues such as Mika Lodge or Sandy’s Creation and then pay allowances of K900 or more depending on your position for the day claiming that Mika Lodge is in Chongwe District whilst Sandy’s Creation is in Chilanga District for example and therefore the Officials are out of their jurisdiction hence allowances being paid to them.
Positions such as that of a PS get over K1200 per day. President HH simply handed a cure to this mischief, the forth coming workshop for Ministers and Permanent Secretaries will be at Mulungushi International Conference Center within Lsk so no allowances expected to be paid out.
Then I want to also believe that the traveling Provincial Ministers and PSs shall be accommodated and fed hence only attracting an out-of-pocket allowance which is like K240 per day. This works out cheaper and prudent in utilization of public funds as is envisioned and espoused by His Excellency the President.
Ala mukose ba clique, the days of chewing free money from Govt are over. It’s now time to work for the pipo of Zambia and correctly earning what is truly due to one and not free stealing of public resources. The days of applying low standards to high office are over! Bally is fixing this.
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