By Staff Reporter
In his year end Presidential address to the public Chakwera has promised to reshuffle the cabinet and come up with an even smaller cabinet within the month of January.
Political analysts and the general public has argued that a smaller cabinet than the current one is not necessary at this point as the President must navigate through the current political tensions, and focus on building the nine member Tonse Administration apart from delivering on his campaign promises.
This comes two months after he had promised to reshuffle his cabinet by 2022 year end, adding to a list of countless promises Chakwera makes but never fulfills.
Political analysts have again faulted Chakwera for yet making another unnecessary promise that will likely chock his Government. Chakwera has not recently been compelled by anyone to reduce his cabinet other than his own campaign promise of a smaller cabinet.
Speaking to a top MCP official who has sought for anonymity, he says Malawians will not benefit anything from a leaner cabinet as this will only create poor Government delivery and create further tension in the Tonse Administration, and subsequently derail development.
Political analysts have argued that while Chakwera focuses on a 20 member cabinet or less, DPP which many use to benchmark the current cabinet had about 32 members or more. Many have argued that DPP was only counting and highlighting senior cabinet Ministers while hiding the real number of deputies and other officials.
“If Chakwera really intends to cut down unnecessary Government expenditure, he should focus on delivery of public sector reforms, and not on cutting down on number of his Ministers. Number of cabinet Ministers is not the major outlier in driving up expenditure. There are just too many unwanted Directors, controllers, public servants and cost centers which do nothing in these MDAs,” says one economist at the Ministry of Finance who has sought for anonymity.
Political commentators have since advised the President to desist from making promises upon unnecessary promises. Instead, they have advised the President to focus on research based actions and results, and making presidential directives that are implementable.
