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Mulongoti calls for civil servants participation in budget formulation

Mulongoti calls for civil servants participation in budget formulation
Written by Ernest Chanda
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 6:28:06 PM

WORKS and supply minister Mike Mulongoti has called on civil servants to actively participate in the budget formulation so that they can understand it well.
Launching the ten-day budget workshop for 2010 at Lusaka's Longacres Lodge yesterday, Mulongoti said all civil servants must take pride in being part of the budget preparation process.

"I did plead with the permanent secretary that I wanted to be part of this process because there must be ownership of the budget by all of us. I'm no exception, my deputy minister [Mundia Ndalamei] is no exception; we are part and parcel of the ministry. We must own the budget all of us," Mulongoti said.

"My qualification is in business administration. That implies that I pay a lot of attention to detail to do with expenditure by way of meeting the targets et cetera, et cetera. We've all heard of Parkinson's principle which says expenses will always rise to meet the available income. So unless we can control expenses they will always rise, even at individual level when you've got K2 in your pocket funerals will appear from nowhere. This is why it is important for us to budget so that we can be able to meet our targets and carry out our mandate as a ministry."

Mulongoti said it was important also that every Zambian changed their mindset in view of the new budget cycle.

"Today as we speak the Bill is in Parliament; we are changing the budget cycle. So those of you who are used to receiving the budget speech in January prepare for October. In October, I'm sure the budget speech will be delivered. We will begin to debate the budget, by December it should be concluded. All of us we must change our mindset, we don't have much time. We don't have much time because even Parliament will also have to adjust its programme," he said.

And Mulongoti said the Public Private Partnership (PPP) had worked very well in other parts of the world.

"Public Private Partnership is a concept that has worked very well elsewhere. We are anxious to see that programme succeed in Zambia. In the past it was assumed that government had the capacity to provide infrastructure. There has been a realisation that it is not possible for government to do that, but in partnership with the private sector it is possible for us to do that," said Mulongoti.

Earlier, works and supply permanent secretary Lieutenant Colonel Bizwayo Nkunika condemned directors who had absconded last year's budgeting session.

".... I want to say that in my seven years as permanent secretary this is the first time we are having a minister opening the budgeting session. So you have broken a record. And because of your seriousness that seriousness will transcend on to all the directors, especially the directors and heads of departments," said Lt Col Nkunika.

"I'm saying this because last year there were some directors who were not serious in attending this budgeting session. This was a very bad attitude, which I want to say publicly I condemn that because us as leaders must give good examples to show seriousness at work. During the year as well there were a few problems where some of the departments failed to submit returns especially for the annual reports on time. I want us to start this budgeting session this year with a sense of seriousness because we are dealing with a serious issue."

Labels: MIKE MULONGOTI

posted by MrK @ 5:28 PM