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JCTR urges govt to set up debt advisory committee

JCTR urges govt to set up debt advisory committee
Written by Kabanda Chulu
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 3:36:38 PM

JCTR has called for the immediate establishment of a debt advisory committee within or outside the Ministry of Finance to advise government on matters of debt conditionality and sustainability.

And Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) programme officer for debt and public resource monitoring officer Privilege Haang’andu has observed that recommendations of the public finance committee of the National Constitution Conference (NCC) on loan contraction were encouraging but insufficient.

Commenting on the recommendations submitted to the NCC plenary, Haang’andu yesterday stated that the public finance committee had shown a fundamental step to ensuring that Zambia did not revert into unsustainable debt.

“Most developing countries are currently dangerously prone to the debt trap, especially in the context of the global economic and financial meltdown and we think it must be clearly spelt out from the onset that there is need to constitute a Debt Advisory Committee within or outside the Ministry of Finance and National Planning to advise the government on debt management and matters of conditionality and sustainability,” Haang’andu stated.

He stated that the government should also establish a central depository where all loan agreements and repayment targets and interest agreements could be kept for easier monitoring of debt servicing.

“We have consistently witnessed in the last three years some irregularities in repayment targets where the government has had to pay more in debt servicing than it had earlier projected,” Haang’andu stated. “Besides, different senior officials can appear in public and give contradictory figures about what is owed to the foreign sources, indicates lack of a coherent data base. We should not miss the opportunity now to ensure water-tight measures that will stand a taste of time.”

The NCC public finance committee has recommended that parliament should be involved when contracting loans and it should set the ceilings for annual repayments and contraction.

Labels: DEBT, JCTR

posted by MrK @ 2:38 PM