Stop ‘mischief’ of making finance minister a paymaster – Nawakwi

Stop ‘mischief’ of making finance minister a paymaster – Nawakwi
Written by Patson Chilemba
Monday, July 27, 2009 12:23:53 PM

FDD president Edith Nawakwi yesterday asked President Rupiah Banda's government to stop the "mischief" of wanting to make the finance minister a paymaster for politicians, civil servants and the Judiciary.

Commenting on the move by the government to introduce the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices (Emolument) (Amendment) Bill, 2009 to Parliament, Nawakwi said she did not understand the new style of governance where they wanted to come up with a statutory instrument to make the finance minister the paymaster for those serving in sensitive institutions in the nation.

She said already there were complaints from stakeholders that the Judiciary was compromised and making the finance minister its paymaster would just worsen the situation.

"Parliament should not allow this misadventure to take place. It is mischief. It is mischievous because people need to know how much their leaders are getting. Who would know what would happen if there is a matter between the government and the people, and government is interested in winning that matter like the case of Dipak Patel and FDD?" Nawakwi asked.

"Can you imagine what would happen? They would just come up with a statutory instrument over night and that will be all. It has never been heard of in the Commonwealth. It would just worsen the situation."

Nawakwi said those in government would want to increase their salaries secretly in order to keep away the public eye from their mischief.

She said politicians were employed by the people and the people through their representatives in Parliament should determine the wages of those they employed.

"The only reason is that each time they go to Parliament to increase the salaries for constitutional officeholders, there is uproar on the streets. So they want to do it secretly. My colleagues in Parliament should rise up to this and refuse. I don't think any member of parliament who is there for the people will allow this to go through," said Nawakwi. "I think for once, they [parliamentarians] will stand up and will not allow this mischief. I want to find out what mischief they [government] are trying to advance."

The government intends to introduce two bills to create different salary structures for politicians and those for civil servants.