PP faults Mid-term budget
Opposition People’s Party (PP) has described the Mid-term Budget Review Statement, presented by Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe as lacking detail.
Making his formal response to the statement, PP’s spokesperson on financial matters Ralph Jooma said the party feels short-changed with the unsatisfactory presentation of the statement.
“It is difficult to appreciate how we can approve figures that have been hidden from us. Why should the Fisp vote be allocated an extra K10 billion to K60 billion while there’s no increase in other equally important items such as iron sheets and cement. In September, government told us that the Fisp [Farm Input Subsidy Programme] vote will be reduced because some items will be locally purchased,” he said.
He then implored Gondwe to explain why numerous government departments have overspent in the past six months.
Jooma said: “Can the minister explain why and how the Malawi Police Service and the Accountant General’s office overspent by 156 percent and 60 percent respectively, in the past six months?”
He also asked Gondwe to provide a thorough breakdown of what is being borrowed and collected.
“Otherwise, we are being overambitious and we seem to base our optimism on the kwacha appreciation. We can’t continue having a national budget that is consumptive, government should not rejoice for under-spending because under-spending was only on development budget which is cause for worry than self-praise. We need to start creating wealth than spending money,” Jooma said.
He also expressed concern why the national export strategy was not given prominence in the budget statement.
Added Jooma: “As a result of such tendencies, that is why government has in only six months, already borrowed K58 billion (US$123 142 251) from the Reserve Bank of Malawi.”
