Members of staff at National Food Reserve Agency (NRFA) have expressed worry and are fedup with what the CEO Brenda Masanza and the Board Chair, Mr Deniss Kalekeni are doing at the agency.
Chairperson Dennis Kalekeni comes to office almost everyday and his coming attracts K90,000 allowance per day.
He has taken roles of the CEO as most of the things are done by him instead of the CEO.
He travels to NFRA depots every month and draws T and T allowances in the excess of K1.5 million per trip.
Recently he drew a staggering K1.6 million for a trip which he claimed to travel to Blantyre for interviews with reporters but he never travelled instead he conducted the interviews at Wamkulu Palace in Lilongwe but he never returned the allowances.
He fired the old management in the name of clearing the rubble but the current CEO was also part of the management he fired. He placed the current CEO on that position because she saw her as a the weakest point for him to be drawing huge allowances from the already struggling institution.
In all fairness, she was also supposed to be fired along with the old management.
During the last financial year, allowances for him and his board members over shot the budget, but the CEO keeps approving every single trip proposed by the chair, instead of leaving the responsibility to technical team on the ground at the agency.
Most of the times the chair and CEO are always together in the field, drawing huge sums of money through such unnecessary trips.
Eversince President Chakwera appointed this board two years ago, NFRA has had no regard for the walfare its employees. Employees are usually told the agency has no money to support them whenever there a crucial issue affecting their welfare.
For instance, the Board Chair decided to visit Mangochi depot just see if the premises were being taken care of.
“Imagine the whole board chair going to Mangochi just to verify if the grass around the premises were cut and if the office looks smart simply for purposes of draining NFRA coffers in allowances” lamented one of the employees who opted for anonymity.
On a sad note the two are lovers now. The CEO eveen comes in the evening at NRFA to meet his sweetheart when everyone has knocked off and spend some precious time sometimes up to 21:00 hrs.
It is believed the two enjoy some romantic steamy moments in the office.
It is reported that the relationship started when she was the Acting CEO, because Board Chair made sure she was appointed to the position of CEO after conniving with some MCP government officials.
The Tonse Alliance Government led by MCP President Chakwera came into power promising to end the allowance culture but what is happening at NRFA is sickening and uncalled for.
Members of staff are requesting the Anti Corruption Bureau and other institutions to investigate this “Allowance Scam through honey trap” currently underway at the agency.
We may be dismayed to discover that probably the board Chair has been receiving allowances exceeding 374 days in one year just like what others are currently doing elsewhere in government.
“If this issue is not addressed in plenty of good time, then we members of staff will decide the next course of action because noone wants this board to continue abusing the agency any more., enough is Enough, we are sick and tired of this unprofessional conduct by the board Chair and CEO,” one anonymous member of staff emphasised.
