Maravi

‘Rupiah is ‘Mr Holidays’ forever’

‘Rupiah is ‘Mr Holidays’ forever’
By Moses Kuwema and Florence Bupe
Fri 26 Mar. 2010, 04:01 CAT

UPND president Hakainde Hichilema yesterday revealed that President Rupiah Banda intends to leave for Brazil for another 10 days.

And parliamentary Public Accounts Committee chairperson Emmanuel Hachipuka has advised controlling officers at State House to ensure that President Rupiah Banda and his entire delegation retire imprest for the state visit to Namibia, which was unexpectedly cut short from four to two days.

Speaking when he featured on the Hot Seat programme, on Hot Fm yesterday, Hichilema said President Banda was a ‘Mr Holidays’ forever because he was always on holiday.

“President Banda lacks leadership to solve the problems that this country is going through because if he did he would not have gone to China for 10 days without first solving the flood situation in the country…I’m now told that he is on his way to Brazil for 10 days. So even this trip… people should start condemning us when we raise issues? Why should I praise Rupiah? For what when people are dying in flooded areas?” he asked.

Hichilema said the MMD government was not a decent one because it had failed to provide a remedy for the floods that had hit the country.

“The situation is terrible. It’s different from flying to Namibia and not being aware of the problems in your country, death has become cheap under the MMD government,” he said.

Hichilema said during his tour of Kuku compound in Lusaka on Wednesday, he found a woman’s body in the flooded waters.

“The MMD has no capability to solve the problems of floods because of the way they organise themselves, we disagree with the way they are running the country,” he said.

Hichilema said the government should have declared the flood situation in the country a national disaster as a way of attracting support from the donors.
He challenged Zambians to do the right thing in next year’s elections because the onus was on them.

Hichilema appealed for unity of purpose from the people of Zambia by coming together to fight the injustice.

He said President Banda’s government did not want to allow people to demonstrate freely.

“If Zambians are not allowed to demonstrate freely what do you want them to do? Because if you close a peaceful avenue you are opening a violent avenue which we don’t want,” said Hichilema.

And Hachipuka said it was the responsibility of controlling officers in any government wing to see to it that unutilised imprest is retired within 48 hours of one’s return.

“Any government officer who acquires imprest has the duty to retire it within 48 hours. Clearly, if you obtain imprest for seven days and stay out only for four days, you’re obliged to hand back the cash for the remaining days and account for the days you were out,” he said.

Hachipuka said the money that any government officer obtains and decides not to use belongs to the treasury, and should, therefore, be handed back to the same.
He said failure by any officer to hand back unutilised cash amounted to theft and should be treated as such under the law.

“Not to return money that has not been used to the treasury amounts to theft. The danger with not retiring imprest by filling in the necessary forms is that you create loopholes even for the person who issued the money to pocket cash belonging to the treasury,” Hachipuka said.

“You can’t afford to hold on to government money, it is illegal,” said Hachipuka.

Labels: EMMANUEL HACHIPUKA, EXPENDITURE SYSTEMS, HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, PAC, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:11 PM