BLANTYRE--Getting paid through banks but ending up with peanuts?

Oh, no, stop it!

That's what Pres Joyce Banda (JB) ordered at a rally in Salima on Sunday, after she heard a complainant from a chief that whenever they go to banks to get their monthly honoraria, they end up with peanuts as most of the money is spent on transports costs.

“So I now announce that starting from today, chiefs, especially those that get little money as honoraria should no longer be paid through banks,” Banda said, ordering the Treasury.

“It is true most of these chiefs receive little money as their honoraria, and if you calculate the money they spend travelling to banks, you will see that they end up with nothing.”

Banda spoke at Nsumwa Primary School in Salima South Constituency when she addressed a development rally and was responding to a complaint by Senior Chief Ndindi.

The chief in his welcome speech observed that the system of paying honoraria, introduced by the erstwhile Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government, robbed chiefs of their monetary benefits.

Paramount chiefs receive about K50, 000 every month.
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©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment.