Malawi’s UN General Assembly Delegation was Smallest- Mutharika

•  Mutharika explains why entourage was huge
• Refuse to step-down for nonsense calls

All were said about attendance from the Malawi Delegation to the recent United Nations (UN) General Assembly, but Malawi President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika has said, almost all that was told was wrong.

During his meeting with the press at Kamuzu palace in the capital city, Lilongwe, President Mutharika though acknowledging that the delegation from Malawi was 106 as it appears on the list, but very few government officers went to the UN General Assembly using government money.

“First of all let me say that the Malawi delegation was one of the smallest” he said then explained how it the size of the delegation seemed to be huge “You can only get access, accredited to UN through your country. So any body from Malawi whether is coming from Civil Society or what, they had to be put on Malawi delegation. That’s what happened!”

He indicated that those who went to UN General Assembly includes from; Academics, Civil Society and others used the Malawi Government registration hence the list went up higher.

On tickets for the entourage, the Malawi President said funding for most of the government officials from various ministries including those from Civil Society and minister of Gender came from various organizations and not from Malawi government.

But he mentioned that only minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Health were funded by Government.

“So this government did not pay (finance their travel) You see!” Said Mutharika who looked furious and was banging the table as he was proving his critics wrong

“So for once, I hope everybody understands this and this nonsense has got to stop!” warned Mutharika

He then mentioned that he took staff to the UN General Assembly only from “areas” that were relevant for activities he was asked to do while at UN Assembly

“We had to get people from all the various ministries come and assist me. I can’t do all these by myself. Said Mutharika then added “We were all the time working and all these people were working. Believe me they were working” he said they worked day and night

“All these nonsense that people went to shop is complete garbage. All these were working extremely hard”

While responding to media questions on the same issue but on calls that President must step-down for squandering public coffers, Mutharika said “I will not step down there is no reason for this”