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(TIMES) Zambia being prudent...with economic realities

Zambia being prudent...with economic realities
By Times Reporter

THE Government has started cutting on expenditure on some of the budgetary allocations to mitigate the effects of the current national economic challenges, Vice-President George Kunda has said.

Mr Kunda said at a Press briefing in Lusaka yesterday that the Government was very prudent in its spending and slashed disbursement on a number of budgetary items to help offset the cost of addressing the current situation created by external and internal forces.

“We are reviewing our monetary policies and we are cutting down on some of the expenditures. We have to use our resources prudently,” Mr Kunda said in response to questions by a journalist.

Mr Kunda, who is also justice minister, said, among other areas, the Government had managed to cut the expenditure on the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) as compared to what was budgeted for the constitution-making process this year.

He said contrary to the assertion by Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata that K400 billion was spent on the NCC this year, only K44 billion had so far been disbursed since the NCC became operational.

The vice-president said a further K5 billion would be released for the constitution-making exercise by the end of the year and noted that, according to the Yellow Book, K309 billion had been allocated to the exercise.

Mr Kunda said leaders like Mr Sata should be sincere and consistent as he was among the people who were pressing for the new constitution but now the exercise had become secondary to him.

He said the Government would continue cutting on expenditure, which would affect its core operations and performance and it was in the same vein that it withdrew the hosting of the All African Games so that the K800 billion which would have been spent could help the Government look at other needy areas.

“We are not reckless as Mr Sata says. We are rationalising various expenditures to ensure that we have more funds for things like the fertiliser support programme (FSP),” he said.

Describing the prevailing economic situation as dynamic, Mr Kunda said some things currently taking place like the nose-diving prices of copper, which were threatening miners’ jobs, could not be anticipated and therefore no one should be blamed for the situation.

He said it be wrong, therefore, to state that the Government, which had been in office for only about a month, had failed as a result of the current situation.
Mr Kunda said the governments world over, were grappling with the current global crisis and they were working out ways of circumventing further consequences just like the Zambian Government was doing.

He said the Government was working hard to address the effects of the global crisis on the economy and the lives of its citizens.

Labels: BUDGET CUTS, GEORGE KUNDA, NCC

posted by MrK @ 10:48 AM