45 000 chiefs on government payroll

Government has on its payroll 45 357 traditional leaders who will get honorarium in the 2014/15 National Budget.

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Tarsizio Gowelo told the House on Wednesday that the only traditional leaders who would get paid were those appearing in the ministry’s books.

Gowelo’s remarks followed concerns from Salima South parliamentarian Uladi Mussa (People’s Party-PP) who asked Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe to clarify comments he made to the Nation on Sunday newspaper in which he said chiefs promoted by the previous PP administration would not be entertained.

“There are 20 000 chiefs the previous government promoted to encourage development. What will happen to these?” Mussa asked.

But Gowelo responded: “The ministry will be responsible for those appearing in our records. As for chiefs not in our records, we won’t be responsible.”

According to the ministry’s records, there are 35 587 village heads, 9 470 group village heads, 78 sub-traditional authorities (ST/As), 158 traditional authorities (T/As), 61 senior chiefs and six paramount chiefs.

Parliament has approved an allocation of K12 653 742 699 for the Ministry of Local Government.