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Enact laws to place ceiling on political expenditures, says Seshamani

Enact laws to place ceiling on political expenditures, says Seshamani
By Kabanda Chulu
Monday October 06, 2008 [04:00]

ZAMBIA should consider enacting laws to place a ceiling on the expenditures by every political party participating in national elections, University of Zambia (UNZA) Professor of Economics Venkatesh Seshamani has said.

Making observations on assertions that the October 30 Presidential elections will give rise to increased government and other political spending that will result in higher inflationary pressures, Prof Seshamani on Friday said that political parties cannot be prevented from spending on elections because the reality is that no election can be won without money power.

“…In order to reduce the impact of excessive expenditures which can have an inflationary impact, one can bring in legislation to place a ceiling on the expenditures by every political party participating in the election,” Prof Seshamani said. “In the United States, for instance, the ceiling is determined by the formula of two cents multiplied by the number of eligible voters in the election. Obviously, the eligible voting population will be different for a presidential election and a city council election but a similar formula can be developed here in Zambia as well in kwacha terms so that there is a ceiling to excessive spending.”

Prof Seshamani also said the returning to the treasury of large sums of unused funds at the end of a budget year was a common phenomenon.

“It happens almost every year. The reason is that there is no alignment between the budget year from 1st January to December 31 and the fiscal year 1st April to 31st March and on account of this, disbursements of approved allocations are not timely and adequate,” Prof Seshamani said. “And a huge amount of the approved allocations are then disbursed towards the end of the year and the ministries, provinces and spending agents are unable to utilise the funds which are then sent back to the treasury.”
Prof Seshamani suggested that the solution to this problem is to align the budget and fiscal years which would require constitutional amendment.

During his campaigns last week, Vice-President Rupiah Banda expressed surprise that K900 billion was last year taken back to the treasury and consequently advised that all budgetary allocations must be utilised.

Labels: UNZA, VENKATESH SESHAMANI

posted by MrK @ 5:16 AM