Copyright mwnation
Every time, there is a change of guard at State House, scores of senior public officials are removed, or redeployed, with some ‘incarcerated’ at ‘Guantanamo’. Guantanamo is a U.S. mil itar y prison faci l ity i n Cu b a . No t o r i o u s for detaining terrorists and the most hardened criminals posing serious national security threats, Guantanamo was established in January 2002 by US president George W. Bush at the height of the global War on Terrorism following the attacks on September 11, 2001. But Malawi has its own brand of ‘Guantanamo’, which, at every change of government sees some of its ‘inmates’ freed and their places filled by new public officers. This is a place of internal exile or unjustified, idle deployment for publ i c servants. These are public servants usually seen as political enemies of the ruling party. Sometimes they are transferred to remote or functionless duty stations where they have no work but continue to draw salaries and other benefits. Former vice-president, the late Saulos Chilima, described the practice as wastage of government resources because these officers remain idle while still being paid. The exit of the President L a z a r u s C h a kwe r a ’s administration and return of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government has, as expected, precipitated another cycle or cohort of ‘Guantanamo’ arrivals and departures. The shake-up at Capital Hill has seen some Principal Sec retar i es (PSs) and senior public officers who are politically-misaligned with the new administration removed, w i t h o t h er s redeployed. Our concern is mostly about those who have been removed but still on the government payroll. Some have running contracts ranging from one year to three years—up to 2008. Of those removed, some will be sent to ‘Guantanamo’, to do nothing but continue to enjoy all their perks which include a monthly salary, 500 litres of fuel, a TX Prado, K50 000 for airtime, a VVIP medical scheme. W hen they go to the office, the ‘Guantanamo’ officers just read the newspapers. Some have no offices at all. Hence they have all the time in the world to engage in other remunerative activities. I have a friend who was in ‘Guantanamo’ during the Chakwera administration. I hope he will be remembered. He has a farm in Mulanje and during the past five years, he has been spending most of the time there. What a way to waste government’s resources. Some of the PSs that have been removed also replaced others who were sent to ‘Guantanamo’ by the other government. Of course, some public officers are removed for genuine disciplinary reasons. The fact is that the practice perpetuates a vicious cycle of unproducti v i t y and wasteful use of taxpayers’ money. The wastefulness comes in two ways. Those incarcerated to ‘Guantanamo’ are not o rd i n a r y empl o y e e s . They are highly qualified technocrats that government spent mil lions t raining them, and most of them are holders of masters’ degrees. Their job as PSs i s to prov ide st rategic advice to the President and Cabinet, overseeing t h e adminis t rat i o n o f ministries, and ensuring i m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f government policies. But in Guantanamo they do nothing. They are only employees—leaders with no one to lead into doing anything productive for the public. What a waste of resources. Legal exper ts say the re-assignment of workers to ‘Guantanamo’ i s an infringement of good labour pract ices and amounts to contractual dismissal. The practice i s also in conflict with Section 31 of the Constitution which provides that every person shall have the right to fair and safe labour practices and to fair remuneration. But both—the successive government s and the incarcerated employees— are to blame for the practice wh i ch gi ves room f o r corruption and encourages political patronage for those who are in the service as they make decisions with fear of being sent to ‘Guantanamo’. Political patronage also smacks of unprofessional conduct by some public servants who indulge in partisan politics and hence become targets in the event of a change of government as they are treated as political agents. If the new government is serious about cutting expenditure, it should break the jinx and abolish ‘Guantanamo’.
