The Salary Factor

With Richie

Yes. I am back.

This is not the Friday article.

Some sects of the Richie Online Readers Community have filed an official complaint following my back to back posts of articles by guest writers. I don’t know whether that came from the fact that the Daydreamer talked about them and how they have been messing with this country or not. All in all, I think they had a good point and my laziness needed a bit of rebuking. Well. Here we are. I have decided to drop a mid-week article and to also drop the Friday article; all by myself. I hope that this will be enough to atone for my sins, not so Dr Huwa (ndi mlongo wanu Thembi Sibande)? I guess that is it.

Since I have very few things to say on this one, I can go on and share one housekeeping issue. This is going out especially to those who would like to share some insights through the Richie Online platform. I just wanted to inform all of you that from now all guest writers on Richie Online will have to submit their name and a small bio along with the article. This will be strictly published. In short, there will be no anonymous writers and as such people should stop sending articles from Airmail for publishing. Zatha zimenezo. Management is even considering requesting a utility bill, a passport or driving license and two passport size photos from every guest writer. That is still being discussed, anyway.

To this day’s business…

I am now part of the civil service as some of you might know. I am talking of the same civil service which is undergoing some much touted reforms spearheaded by our young veep. Good thing, right? I know the old fellas are giving a nod of agreement. After all, they like to say that m’boma mumasunga. Only them know whatever that means.

Without lying or exaggerating anything, I should say that the reason I wake uo every morning and hang head to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital to help patient is on the most part economical. I am there for the money. My job happens to be a calling, but at the end of the day the truth is that if there is no money attached to that work I wouldn’t be going there. Before any hypocrite judges me, I should be quick to point out that I love the other aspects of my work the same way as I love the returns. It is a truly satisfying thing to see a patient “carry his mat” and walk out of the ward after you prescribed some sort of concoction.

I hope you know where this is going. There are people with whom I share a workplace and I know those have figured it out. Well.

As I am typing, a considerable percentage of members of the civil service are yet to receive their monthly payments. I was not going to say anything about this, but the interesting thing is that those of us who belong to the Health sector just got the courtesy of a memo by some high authority from the Ministry of Health, apologizing for the delay in the salaries. What the many people who work in the health sector do not get on that is the poor timing and they cannot help to wonder as to why that communiqué would have to come at a moment when what they are looking for is money to replace the excuses that they have been giving the numerous people they owe.

That was it, in case you were thinking that the rest of the article will be a rant at the government for delaying the much needed salaries. This article is more about systems than it is about one salary delay which was half predictable.

Before I joined the civil service, I had been hearing a lot on how little the salaries in the gaffment were and how you have to wait for the fortieth of the month before getting the bank alert at the earliest. People gave all sorts of complaints in the media and wherever else and for some reason I used to laugh at those teachers and law enforcers thinking that such would not happen to a person of my profession. Of course later the errors diffused and things started happening even in the health sector. It was just a matter of time, anyway.

One angry person posted on the social media and wondered what the government accountants do every month for us to hear some people complaining of a salary delay. I would say it is a valid question and one would add the question as to why people take three months to start getting their salaries after getting hired by the government only to write numerous applications for some nonexistent arrears; where as their counterparts in the private sector get their perks pronto. I am pretty sure someone who is directly involved in the processing of the salaries of civil servants can come to the justification of all the highlighted errors. They would probably say something about machines as if the salaries are processed by some machine into which named have to be carved with a chisel and hammer one at a time as opposed to some computer into which someone can just punch Maxwell Yohane’s account details. We surely have some malignant mediocrity in our systems and that needs to be addressed.

Perhaps one would argue that it is lack of financial prudence that leaves us complaining about the delays in the salaries. I would partly agree for reasons that I would explain.

The people who preach the gospel of entrepreneurship have always dissed those of us who are salary dependent calling us people who provide a temporary remedy to a chronic illness. That might be a good point. If for example, I could invest somewhere and be getting some good returns, I would not feel the pinch of a salary delay and all would be well for me and my wife and child. However, most of us have not gone the investing way for reasons ranging from negligence to incapability (nanga ma change akewa ukachotsapo ka landilodi ndi ka transport, ya investment ikumatsalanso ngati?) All in all, I believe it is possible to start with what you have, where you are and we could all work something out in such situations, which may not be resolved soon.

On the left side of it, I am not sure that I fully agree with the idea that people should be forced into investment as a way of escaping the problem that the government shouldn’t have placed on their plates in the first place. People are entitled to a salary and that is their due after working those long hours in front of those pupils or in that hospital ward. They are entitled to some sort of payment at the end of the month and not in the middle of the next one and that needs to come without any delay, all things considered. Anything that diverts from this norm is a big insult to the many professionals who sacrifice a lot for the betterment of this country.

Everything I have said here finally brings me to the question of why people continue to be docile over such matters. I have not heard but a few stories of people taking some serious action against such mediocre activities. Salaries get delayed month in month out and all people do is to say “ndi m’boma mmenemu” and continue to work harder until we rejoice on payday as if it is not an entitlement. This will continue to happen and people will continue to passively complain and observe. That is Malawi for us.

Lesson from the saga? It might indeed be time to listen to the gospel  of entrepreneurship; a time to confess the sin of passive complaining and to be delivered from salary dependency to get into the promised land of self employment and entrepreneurship. Or perhaps it is time to bank on Chilima and his reforms, and to believe that the decentralization of salaries in the civil service will bring an end to our troubles. I know enanu mumagwira kwa amwenye, in NGOs and everywhere else. You probably have some issues there too and all you need is to take action, otherwise I don’t see help coming anytime soon.

Civil servant adzalira mokweza mpaka kale.

Happy 35th February kwa nonse amene zanu sizinalowe.