Maravi

Kalulushi councillors reject budget

Kalulushi councillors reject budget
By Darious Kapembwa in Kitwe
Wed 17 Nov. 2010, 03:59 CAT

COUNCILLORS in Kalulushi on Monday refused to approve the local authority’s proposed K25.2 billion budget because it did not capture service provision.

Debating the 2011 proposed budget during a special council meeting, MMD Ichimpe ward councillor and former mayor Evaristo Mwalilino led his colleagues in rejecting the proposed budget, saying it did not meet service provision requirements for the people in the wards.

Mwalilino said councillors could not approve the budget whose major component was workers’ emoluments and not service provision.

“…The people in our wards want a budget that will address issues affecting them, not this budget that has 40 per cent going to salaries for workers. I can assure you that approving this budget will be the worst scandal in the history of the council since the inception of this council. Honestly speaking, how do you approve a budget that will only be spent on personal emolument? When will the people of Kalulushi see services?” Mwalilino asked.

He said the budget did not inspire confidence in the people of Kalulushi and should therefore be deferred so that councillors could have an input of what they want done in their wards in terms of service provision.

Supporting the call to defer the budget, Kankonshi ward councillor Christopher Kanengu said councillors could not approve the budget for the sake of pleasing officers.

“I rise on a serious point of order. This budget can’t be approved for the sake of sending our officers for training, no…no…; this budget must go back… What roads will be graded and what services will be done to our rural population? Then we shall approve it. Mind you, next year we’ll be voting; the people will be asking us what we have done for them and we’ll lose but these officers will remain,” Kanengu debated as the whole house roared in approval.

Kalulushi town clerk Maxwell Kabanda failed to convince councillors not to defer the budget.

“Councillors, please do not defer the budget again. People elsewhere will look at it that we are not doing it in good faith. They may think we are doing this for monetary gain. Surely, all these heads can defer the budget twice; the nation is watching and they may think that we are feasting on people’s money,” said Kabanda amidst protests from councillors.

Council officers laboured to convince councillors who shot down every proposal to approve the proposed budget.

Labels: BUDGET, CHRISTOPHER KANENGU, KALULUSHI MUNICIPAL COUNCIL

posted by MrK @ 3:59 PM