Minister of Finance and National Planning Situmbeko Musokotwane has clarified on the recent events surrounding the alleged errors in the 11.3 billion kwacha supplementary budget, which was unanimously passed by Parliament last week Friday.
Dr. Musokotwane has explained that the case of the K298 million supplementary budget was a provision for only one component of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) which is under Community Projects and not the entire CDF projects.
Dr. Musokotwane stated that a total sum of about K4.4 billion was allocated to CDF, for all its three components, which are Community Projects, Youth, Women and Community Empowerment, and Secondary Boarding School and Skills Development Bursaries.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lusaka, regarding the issue that arose from parliament and now to the general public, Dr. Musokotwane revealed that the Community Projects components had a provision of about 2.7 billion kwacha, of which the 298 million kwacha was added.
He said this was out of the remaining funds from the provision for community projects for last year which was not utilized, attributing it to slowness in the absorption of CDF.
He noted that instead of recalling the money to the treasury, a decision was arrived at to push it back to community projects in each constituency under community projects for this year.
The Minister hoped to restore public confidence in government planning, referring to the issue as a case of mere misinterpretation and not an indication of inaccuracies in the budget.
“We are supplementing more money to the 2023 budget to the extent of K298 249 818 million only under community projects, the money being a carryover from last year’s CDF budget under the community projects component of the CDF,” Dr. Musokotwane clarified.
And the Minister noted that the government is in a hurry to push development to all parts of the country through the successful implementation of the CDF.
He noted that following measures to identify the challenges associated with implementation of CDF, the government is putting in place various initiatives to streamline the implementation of CDF projects so that the development gap between rural and urban areas is bridged.
Dr. Musokotwane was displeased with the low utilization of funds, due to issues of legal provisions, delays in approvals and also the negative attitude by some council employees.
Meanwhile the minister of mines ” postpones” the announcement of the ” promised” investors for our beleaguered mines. What a bunch of jokers.
I followed part of the debate in Parliament and what Situmbeko has explained here isn’t the way it is. It’s not only anomalies that raised concern but also the reduction in the allocations to oversight functions. Situmbeko must provide credible answers to the questions raised. It seems like it’s a deliberate ploy to misrepresent facts and divert money while crippling oversight institutions so that there’s no accountability. We deserve better
This shows the ignorance of PF MPs like Kalalwe Mukosa who are so keen to criticise.
We have to start seeing many of these PF members of parliament for what they are, they lack basic intelligence, common sense and they have trouble with comprehension.
Kalalwe Mukosa should be embarrassed and ashamed.
No doubt they will keep on talking nonsense. Pity.
Just because you fail to notice the inconsistency in the report regarding allocations you feel the MP lacked intelligence when infact he pointed out an anomaly you would never have known about! Calo cesu bonse bane we can do better than ukutangisha ama unwarranted attacks. You know something @Ben, in principle, no one wants this country to fail!
This is Kalalwe Mukosa who in 2018 confirmed the interception by the Zambia Air Force of a planeload of US dollar bills, guns, ammunition and documents showing addresses of lawyers connected to opposition parties where they were to be delivered. The truth is there was no such plane but the Daily Nation newspaper reported it.
This minister is over rated. Watch him messing up this economy.
For as long as gay rights are not allowed in zambia, you will not achieve anything positive. This is because when you legalise homosexuality you will get a diverse Ieadershlp of gay people who are highly skilled and motivated.
My handsome boyfriend has travelled to Italy today. I miss him so much. I hope people can keep me company on Lusaka times. It will be a long week
Hon Musokotwane thinks Zambians are dumb! Can he tell us if all the CDF allocations of K28.3m being released to constituencies as per allocation? Why going back to parliament to request for a supplementary budget?
Please don’t ‘take us for a ride, already things don’t look okay on the ground, start packing your bags to leave in 2026.