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Levy authorised disbursement of 2008 budget, says Chibiliti

Levy authorised disbursement of 2008 budget, says Chibiliti
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Thursday April 17, 2008 [04:00]

PRESIDENT Mwanawasa on April 1, 2008 signed the general warrant authorising the treasury to start disbursing the 2008 national budget, Secretary to the Treasury Evans Chibiliti has said. And Chibiliti also said his office was in the process of appointing controlling officers for this year’s budget.

“The budget was approved a couple of weeks ago and I have received the general warrant from the President, and so the disbursement of this year’s budget has started,” said Chibiliti in an interview.

Chibiliti also expressed optimism that the year’s budget would be expended better than last year’s.

He expressed confidence government programmes and projects would be implemented as early as possible.

Last year, Chibiliti revealed that about K900 billion of the budgeted money in the 2007 Budget was not spent.

The Secretary to the Treasury attributed the slow budget implementation to what he called structural deficiencies which shortened the implementation cycle.

And Chibiliti also said he would soon be appointing controlling officers.
“We will be advising the controlling officers on the public finance Act so that this year we receive less criticism,” he said.

The government’s failure to spend the money received a lot criticism from a number of stakeholders who said there was no justification for the Treasury not to disburse such a huge amount of money when the government had failed to attend to a number of obligations.

Labels: 2008 BUDGET, EVANS CHIBILITI, MWANAWASA

posted by MrK @ 5:44 AM