President Lazarus Chakwera’s Tonse Alliance government is currently broke for failing to pay diplomats in various countries across the world for several months.
According to Investigator Magazine, diplomats in the United States of America (USA), Canada, and other countries have gone three months without Foreign Service Allowance.
The publication understands that diplomats receive monthly foreign service allowances calculated differently for each station and Washington DC, Malawi embassy to the United States, Canada, and other countries staff have gone three months without FSA.
In Geneva staff received their last pay in April and the situation is also dire in Belgium, Germany, India, China, Japan, and New York.
Diplomats told the maravi Post that the situation is dire as people live in rented accommodation.
“The situation is less dire in Africa though one mission was recently threatened with eviction for failing to pay rentals, diplomats said.
“In Geneva staff received their last pay in April and the situation is also dire in Belgium, Germany, India, China, Japan, and New York,” says the publication.
We understand a landlord for one of Malawi’s missions in Africa threatened to evict the embassy over failure to pay rentals.
Echoing the same, social commentator Onjezani Kenani on his Facebook Page a message from a diplomat who confirmed that they have gone months without pay.
“I am writing you from one of the embassies. We have gone for three months without pay. Life is hard. That’s all I can say,” the message read.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is yet to comment on the matter.
SINCE COMING TO POWER IN 2020, PRESIDENT LAZARUS CHAKWERA HAS FILLED EMBASSIES WITH POLITICAL LOYALISTS, FRIENDS, AND FAMILY MEMBERS, INCLUDING HIS DAUGHTER VIOLET CHAKWERA WHO WAS POSTED TO THE UNITED KINGDOM HIGH COMMISSION.
The Chakwera administration also stopped the implementation of recommendations from a review exercise which proposed that embassies should have between six and eight diplomats per station.
In 2018, Malawi required a minimum of US$400,000 (about MK500 million) per month to run an embassy.
Currently, the country is facing a foreign exchange crisis with the Reserve Bank of Malawi saying in June that the forex in government’s reserves was not enough to last a month.
Chakwera Tonse Alliance government is failing to fix the ailing economy characterized by a high cost of living, inflation, forex, drugs, and fuel shortages three years in power.- MaraviPost