MPS HAVE PUSHING TO HAVE LOANS

MPS HAVE PUSHING TO HAVE LOANS Members of Parliament (MPs) who were pushing for the full implementation of their conditions of service have no reason to smile now as government has only agreed to be a guarantor of the loan, meaning MPs will have to shoulder the interests. Chairperson of Parliamentary Welfare Committee tasked to engage government on the matter, Alex Major disclosed to Government has put its foot down not to subsidise the loan saying it has no money. Government team led by Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe commenced discussions with the MPs on Tuesday after the disgruntled legislators warned of sabotaging the 2016/17 budget if the executive would not fulfill all conditions of their service. The discussions spilled to Wednesday when the group met the whole day at National Assembly premises. Major, who is Malawi Congress Party (MCP) parliamentarian for Kasungu West explained that the lawmakers will have to shoulder a commercial bank 27 percent base lending rate or more, if they are to access the K3 million General Purpose Administration (GPA) loan. According to him, not many MPs will be able to access the loan as another condition attached is that those applying should ensure that their net pay is not less than half of their salary after deductions. “It’s tricky now because MPs are already servicing a number of loans and now with the news that government will not square the difference, it means some will perhaps only get K1 million and more than that. But at least we have managed to get what we were looking for which is implementation of our conditions of service. “It’s a trend in government that any official whether Budget Director, President or a Cabinet Minister, each time they want to get a loan there is always a subsidy but in our case it’s just the same as an employer signing a letter for an employee to go and get a loan from any commercial bank, this is not good news,” he said. The MP gave an example of Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) Commissioners who he said are much better off compared to legislators, even though the commissioners occupy a lower grade. Said Major: “After five years, a commissioner will purchase the vehicle from Mec at 10 percent, which means if the car was worth K40 million, the Commissioner gets it at K4 million, that a better deal, and people think we are greedy when we are pushing for our conditions of service.” Some of the members who were part of the discussions include Samuel Tembenu, Kondwani Nankhumwa, Harry Mkandawire, Harry Thomson, Patricia Mkanda, Ralph Jooma, Vitus Dzoole Mwale and Anna Kachikho.