Civil Servants in Northern Province Altering Payslips to Obtain Loans, PS Tells ACC Some civil servants in Northern Province are illegally altering their payslips to obtain loans from money lending institutions, Northern Province acting Permanent Secretary Beauty Undi-Phiri said,…

Civil Servants in Northern Province Altering Payslips to Obtain Loans, PS Tells ACC

Some civil servants in Northern Province are illegally altering their payslips to obtain loans from money lending institutions, Northern Province acting Permanent Secretary Beauty Undi-Phiri said, appealing to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate.

Ms Phiri said complaints from the police point to public workers altering the documents so that they appear to fall within the 40 per cent loan affordability threshold. That, she said, lets them secure additional loans from banks and other lending institutions.

She raised the matter with the ACC during a courtesy call on her in Kasama. The commission was in the province for a stakeholders’ consultative workshop on the draft Criminal Assets Management Bill.

Ms Phiri asked the ACC to take a keen interest in the practice and institute investigations. She said the altered payslips are behind the heavy indebtedness of civil servants in the province.

“This is the reason why our civil servants are so indebted, because once they take those altered payslips, the banks feel they are still within the 40 per cent threshold for another loan,” she said.

The cost to the workers themselves, she said, is rising.

“The practice is worsening the living standards of affected public workers, leaving many heavily indebted after obtaining loans beyond their actual repayment capacity,” Ms Phiri said.

She also called for the strengthening of Provincial Integrity Committees established in various institutions. Committee members have received orientation, she said, but further capacity building is needed so that they understand and effectively carry out their mandate.

Ms Phiri was direct about who should sit on the committees.

“Those sitting in these committees should themselves have integrity. The mandate needs to be spelt out clearly to them because there is no way you can be in the committee and you have accusations of being corrupt,” she said.

ACC Director General Daphne Chabu used the same workshop to call on stakeholders to go beyond merely reviewing the provisions of the draft Criminal Assets Management Bill. Her speech was read on her behalf by ACC director of investigations Gibson Chizanda.

Household finances are under separate pressure from the K6 increase in fuel pump prices. Economist Noah Kabwita warned that the higher prices will push up the cost of goods and services across the country, as transport and supply-chain costs feed into what consumers pay.

Mr Kabwita said inflationary pressure on non-energy goods could persist for between three and six months.

He also said lower borrowing costs resulting from monetary policy easing would not necessarily give households enough relief. Lower-income households spend a larger share of their income on fuel and food, he said, and rarely hold the kinds of debt that benefit from rate cuts.

The timing is also against them, Mr Kabwita said.

“Fuel and utility hikes demand immediate cash from a household’s monthly budget. Conversely, the benefits of lower borrowing costs can take months to filter through the banking system,” he said.

Ms Phiri’s request to the ACC to investigate the altering of payslips in Northern Province stands.a