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Constitution-making budget won't be ready soon - Zulu

Constitution-making budget won't be ready soon - Zulu
By Ernest Chanda
Mon 13 Feb. 2012, 13:01 CAT

JUSTICE minister Sebastian Zulu says the budget on the constitution-making process will not be ready soon. In an interview, Zulu said the government and the technical committee tasked to draft a new constitution had still not yet reached a compromise on the allowances members should be paid.

When asked how soon the budget would be ready since technical committee chairperson justice Annel Silungwe had already told the nation how much each member was getting, Zulu said the figures released were interim.

"That's the interim payment they are getting; it's not yet agreed as far as I'm concerned. And in any case, it will be in the budget, it will have to go to Parliament eventually, isn't it?" Zulu said.

Asked when exactly the government would release the constitution-making budget since it had taken so long, Zulu said the government was not ready.

When reminded that taxpayers' money was being spent on the constitution making process, he still maintained that he could only release the budget when his government was ready.

"We are not ready. You know that for instance if there's going to be a referendum that will be part of the process. It's taxpayers' money, yes. They'll be told when we are ready, when the budget is ready; we don't want them to give half things. At the moment we have a fairly good idea," he said.

Asked what that fairly good idea was, Zulu simply responded: "No, I can't tell you."

Since the 20-man member committee appointed by President Michael Sata to draft a new constitution started sitting in November last year, there has been no clear budget it has operated on.

The public had been left to wonder how much of their money would be spent on the constitution-making process.

This prompted justice Silungwe to release figures about two weeks ago where he disclosed that each member was getting a sitting allowance of K650,000, while the chairperson and deputy chairperson would be getting K750,000 and K725,000 respectively.

Labels: CONSTITUTION

posted by MrK @ 3:13 PM