Ministers advised to respect technical staff

Cabinet ministers in the country have been reminded that the fate of this country is in their hands and they can only improve things through coordination and respect for the technical staff in their respective ministries.

In his keynote address during a two-day Cabinet retreat which ended in Lilongwe yesterday, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) secretary general Mukhisa Kituyi said there is no way ministers can turn around a country’s economy if they do not listen to their technical staff.

Kituyi, who led a team of experts to the retreat which centred on trade and development, told the ministers that turning Malawi into heaven is in their hands, but they need to have a coordinating mechanism.

“I was once a politician and I know the behaviour of politicians. You have the tendency to look down upon your technical staff in the ministry because you think you are on top of everything, and your decisions are final, this is what is killing most African economies, including Malawi,” he said.

Guest of honour, Vice-President Saulos Chilima, agreed with Kituyi when he said poverty, unemployment, inequality, raw commodity export dependence that Malawi and other African countries are facing, require concerted and aggressive efforts to address. n