President Lazarus has been challenged to exercise political will if the head count of flushing out ghost workers in the civil service is to bear positive results.

Speaking in Parliament, legislator for Phalombe Central George Million said it is obvious that the presence of ghost workers in the civil service is one of the factors that is constraining the country`s progress.

“This head counts needs a political will from the Head of State because from what I leant from the Tanzania under the later John Magufuli ordered the same exercise and quite a number of ghost workers were removed.

“And as a result, new recruits were taken on board and work in the civil service to replace the flushed-out ghost workers,” said Million.

He suggested that government should instead extend contract for the current cohort of government interns when the ghost workers are flushed out.

“And I was adding to say that if all the ghost workers removed from the Malawi civil service, then there is no need for government to terminate contract for the government interns.

“I understand government is planning to terminate contracts for all government interns this month end of June and my plea to government is that these interns must be maintained up to the two years,” said Million.

Government already carried the head count exercise, and the report of the said exercise is expected to come out this month end of June 2021.

Coincidently, contract for the current cohort of government interns is also coming to an end this month end of June 2021.