Minister of Homeland Security Richard Chimwendo Banda has faulted the previous administration for promoting police officers ‘on paper’ two months before elections without rewarding the promoted officers.

Chimwendo made the remarks in Parliament on Wednesday when responding to questions over promotions for police officers.

In May, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration promoted 8602 police officers out of a workforce of over 14,000 police officers. The move came months before the June 23 elections where the DPP lost power to the Tonse Alliance which is led by President Lazarus Chakwera.

Chimwendo Banda said it is unfortunate that all police officers were promoted on paper by the DPP government despite some officers not deserving promotion.

“It was unfortunate. You cannot promote everyone in one go. But even after promoting them there was nothing that happened, no budget and nothing that [the police officers] were given,” said Chimwendo.

He added that the Tonse Alliance administration is addressing the anomalies and will provide a proper response through the Ministry of Finance.

“But to assure our men in uniform, this government will take care of the promotions and after promoting them we will reward them because you cannot promote on paper and fail to reward,” said Chimwendo.

On recruitment of police officers, Chimwendo said the recruitment process will be done within weeks but has delayed because it was stopped due to malpractices.

“We want the process to benefit the whole country,” said Chimwendo.

He also revealed that the Ministry of Homeland Security has started constructing houses for police officers.

In the 2020/21 national budget, the Malawi Police Service has been allocated K60 billion.