Blame fiscal madness on lack of political will

Dear judge Mbadwa,

My lord, the past few weeks Nyasas have been taken through episodes of extreme inefficiency in government.

At one time, my lord, we were talking about how Nyasaland and its people thrive in chewing taxpayers’ money through corruption, fraud and pure theft.

And just last week, my lord, we learnt how Nyasaland lost K6 trillion due to poor management of public contracts and it has been business as usual, too.

It is well-documented that taxpayers and donors continue to put money in a bucket punctured with holes and nobody cares enough to seal it.

This week though, the focus has been on how the government allocates funding in the budget and fails to release the allocation for development for some unexplained reasons.

Let me keep you in the loop, if you have not followed what I am talking about here, my lord.

Well, an analysis of seven sampled Nyasaland national budgets show that capital projects receive far less money than what is approved in the budget.

The implication is that the country is witnessing numerous project delays, cost overruns and weak economic growth, something that threatens the so-called attainment of long-term development.

With this kind mindset, my lord, we should forget about reaching our economic Canaan very soon.

In my opinion, my lord, money approved for development is never released in time to the votes because that is the only way the syndicate of contractors and government officials at the centre of the projects can justify the resulting cost overruns through which they benefit.

What is the wisdom of legally approving an allocation and launching several projects, only to divert the money to recurrent expenditure?

Though a yawning budget deficit demonstrates how difficult it is to fund our development, we can do better by living within our means.

My lord, it can be argued that there has never been political will over the years to ensure that we religiously follow the fiscal plan.

We should not expect the situation to change very soon on this one.

Have you not heard, my lord, that contractors resort to literally begging government officials to fund stalled

 projects—whose costs skyrocket— after reaching some clandestine agreement on how to share the loot?

It will take a century to bring tangible change if the leadership does not demonstrate the much-needed political will to prioritise areas that can foster development.

Trust me, my lord, we can deduce from the analysis that political leaders in government spend their terms campaigning instead of governing once they take the reins of power.

Regards,

John Citizen.

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