Maravi

Govt expenditure is very depressing, says Nonde

Govt expenditure is very depressing, says Nonde
Written by Gillian Namungala and Constance Matongo
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 7:54:05 PM

ECONOMIC consultant Bob Sichinga has doubted the implementation
of projects outlined in President Rupiah Banda’s speech to Parliament last Friday.

And Federation for Free Trade Unions of Zambia (FFTUZ) president Joyce Nonde has said government expenditure as explained in the Auditor General’s report is very depressing.

Speaking on the ZNBC’s National Watch programme on Sunday, Sichinga doubted whether the government would implement all the projects announced to Parliament considering the current economic situation.

“With the current global crisis, we expect donors to only continue with projects that they are already committed to,” he said.

He said it would have been prudent for the government to come up with ten projects that could be easily fulfilled than a large number which would not be implemented.

“In 2006, we urged government to tax the mines when the prices of copper were high but they only introduced the tax in 2007 and on the way, the prices of copper reduced,” he explained.

“Therefore, this year’s budget will not be an easy one because both indirect and direct support will suffer. The highest budget income was from Pay As You Earn [PAYE] but we are talking about half a million people in formal employment…they can even be much less with the current job cuts.”

Sichinga who also called for the prudent use of resources, said Zambia had the potential to develop further once priorities were set right.

“In December, I attended parliament from the terraces where they announced that on top of the 13.7 trillion 2008 budget, government had a supplementary budget of 2.3 trillion which was not planned for. I was surprised; I expected a lot of debate on this one but only one member of parliament, Given Lubinda, spoke,” said Sichinga. “The challenge this country has is to convert the little resources into reality.”

And Nonde observed that Zambia would have made progress if taxpayers’ money was not being misused. She further said there was need for the government to reduce its debt.

“The government has spoken of reducing debt and I’m happy that they have started paying back the debt owed to pensioners but I must also say that the laissez faire attitude should come to an end, because half the time it’s leisure,” said Nonde.

Labels: AUDITOR GENERAL, EXPENDITURE SYSTEMS, JOYCE NONDE, ROBERT SICHINGA

posted by MrK @ 7:55 PM