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(NYASATIMES) Malawi not broke says Finance Minister

Malawi not broke says Finance Minister
By Nyasa Times
Published: April 18, 2011

Finance Minister Ken Kandodo has quashed reports that the Malawi government is broke. Former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi, Victor Mbewe, indicated in a recent radio interview that Bingu wa Mutharika administration is broke as it is failing to pay for services including public servants their salaries.

Kandodo: Not broke

He however said government would not admit to say it is broke as that would “give a hopeless picture to its citizens.”

Quoted by Daily Times of Monday, the Finance Minister said the country has finances to run.

“Go and check with the Accountant General and the Reserve Bank. Actually, treasury gave all ministries funds for salaries of all civil servants by March 27. If we are broke, we could not have done that,” Kandodo said.

He quoted speaking from Washington DC in the United States of America where he is attending IMF-World Bank Spring meeting

Kandodo said those civil servants who had not been paid it was due to disparities between the names and bank details.

“It’s just the mechanism arising from the change in the paying system,” he said.

Kandodo is on record saying donors are withholding more than $400 million in aid in protest at a law that lets the government ban newspapers publishing material deemed bad for the public and other governance concerns.

He said the aid freeze would probably mean the government having to borrow more this financial year as country is heavily dependent on foreign aid.—(Reporting by Mwayi Phiri, Nyasa Times)

Labels: KEN KANDODO, MALAWI

posted by MrK @ 7:26 PM