Ex-cops claim K85m unpaid allowances
Seven former police officers have sued Malawi Police Service for K85 million in unpaid subsistence allowances from 1993 to 2018.
Each of the ex-officers has several days of unpaid allowances, ranging from 244 nights to 641, according to records filed by their lawyers.
The court documents show that the allowances have been calculated at the present rate for an inspector and sub-inspector, the ranks they held at the time of their retirment.
The court records indicate that an inspector gets K40 000 per night while a sub-inspector is entitled to an allowance of K30 000.
But should the court grant the petitioners their wish, taxpayers may end up paying about K100 million, including about K13 million in collection fees.
In their petition to the High Court of Malawi filed yesterday, the seven said they lawfully retired from the service, having served for varying years.
The applicants are Inspectors Lawrence M’menyanga, Willey Makandanje, Michael Ndolo, Hurley Mbobe and Sub-Inspectors Mc Anthony Chimphamba, Edward Liwonde and Harry Phuka.
The court document shows that at the time of retirement in 2018, each of the seven officers were supposed to be paid night allowances for a number of days they worked outside their duty stations and the police approved.
One letter in the court files, addressed to Inspector M’menyanga, who served for 31 years, shows that he was owed allowances for field work at former president Bingu wa Mutharika’s private property at Ndata in Thyolo, roadblocks and border operations between 2000 and 2018. The allowances were calculated at K2.3 million in 2018.
The rest of the letters are written in the same format, and the only difference are names and number of nights for claimed allowances.
In an interview yesterday, lawyer representing the former police officers, Pangano Bonongwe said his clients have tried to engage the police service on several occasions but to no avail; hence, taking the matter to the High Court.
The initial sum to be paid was K20 million, including collection fees if the police heeded his plea to settle the matter outside the court based on a letter from Fitzgerald Attorney at Law to the Inspector General of Police dated September 3 2020, according to the lawyer.
Bonongwe said there was no explanation on why the police service has not paid the officers their allowances even after making necessary calculations and communication.
Efforts to seek a comment from police proved futile as IG George Kainja, National Police spokesperson James Kadadzera and his deputy Peter Kalaye did not pick our calls.
