Police officers cry for allowances for Bingu’s funeral assignments

Some police officers in the Southern Region have expressed concern over failure by the Malawi Police Service (MPS) to give them allowances for the assignments they undertook when they were called to duty during the funeral of former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika.

Some officers called Weekend Nation wondering why authorities did not pay them allowances from the day Mutharika’s body arrived in the country, April 15 2012, from South Africa to the day he was buried, April 23 2012.
But national police spokesperson Davie Chingwalu trashed the concern, arguing that the officers were given food.

“The funds allocated to MPS were part of the funeral budget from government. This means that money was spent on fuel and food.

“Allowances will be sorted out later. However, police officers know where and how to lodge their complaints and not through the media,” said Chingwalu.

He said the nature of the operation demanded deployment of a large number of officers and so the money was not sufficient for allowances.