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Cama tips off JB on survival tactics

Has issued statement: Kapito
Has issued statement: Kapito

The Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) has asked President Joyce Banda and her administration to introduce practical austerity measures to cushion Malawians from the effects of donor aid freeze.

Banda’s reign has become the third victim of donor aid withdrawal in post-multiparty Malawi following reported looting of public funds at Capital Hill. Her predecessor regimes of former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Bakili Muluzi’s United Democratic Front (UDF) also faced donor aid freeze but due to bad governance.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Cama said the current withdrawal of aid is a spell for a serious economic crisis, especially for the poor hence the need for government to embark on cost-cutting measures mostly in the Executive arm.

Reads in part the Cama statement: “Cama wishes to express its strongest detest against the current state of affairs at Capital Hill which has forced the key donors and the Common Approach to Budgetary Support [Cabs] to freeze its 2013/14 budgetary support to Malawi.

“The current situation revives recent memories of grave suffering poor Malawians went through when donors had pulled out their aid during the DPP administration.”

Cama has called on Banda to trim the Cabinet by half to cut operational costs, arguing government can be managed with a smaller size Cabinet and that taxpayers cannot continue to finance the big Cabinet amid the economic crisis.

Cama also urged the President to reduce international and local travel and also to cut by 50 percent the privileges for the President, Vice-President and Cabinet ministers.

Minister of Information and Civic Education Brown Mpinganjira, who is also the official government spokesperson, was not available for government reactions on Cama’s demands.

However, Chancellor College associate professor of political science Blessings Chinsinga said cutting on privileges and other cost is not a solution to donor aid freeze.

Chinsinga said Malawians should push for practical measures that will ensure that the Executive is accountable and that money is used for the intended purpose. He said officials have to be taken to task for mismanagement.

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