Opposition demands provisional budget report

Opposition members of Parliament (MPs) on Monday asked the Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe to table a special report on how government has spent K210 billion the House approved in June this year.
Parliament on Friday passed the 2014/15 National Budget amounting to K737 billion which includes the provisional budget approved earlier.
But shadow minister of Finance in the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Cabinet, Joseph Njobvuyalema, reminded Gondwe that he had promised to provide a report on the four months expenditure.

 
“Our thinking was this would be the appropriate time for that report,” Njobvuyalema said after Gondwe tabled the Supplementary Appropriation Bill for 2013/14.
But Gondwe’s explanation that he had provided the information during the committee of supply by including allocations to abolished ministries did not satisfy the MPs, including People’s Party (PP) chief whip Ralph Jooma who said:
“Despite the allocations being part of the budget, it is important to get a report so that when passing this bill, the amount would not surpass the amount we authorised the minister to use. We want to assure the House and the nation that the amount did not go beyond what we authorised.”
He said even though the budget had been passed with the figures proposed, there was still need for the report.
“Assuming the budget was not passed, what would we have been doing now?” Jooma said.
But Gondwe insisted that past practice in the House was followed when he presented a budget with allocations already spent between June and September.

 
“We have nothing to hide; after all, this supplementary expenditure was not committed by us, one of the colleagues there was in that government,” Gondwe said.
He, however, said he was willing to repeat the procedure if the House wanted him to do so.
But Speaker Richard Msowoya rescued Gondwe by ruling that it was the tradition of the House that supplementary expenditure be included in the full budget.
“We will proceed with business as it has been in the past unless it is specifically provided in our rules and procedures,” he said.