First Lady Christine Kaseba says the K1.5 billion budgetary allocation to her office is not meant for her salary but for operations.
Dr Kaseba said the money was for support members of staff, who needed to be paid salaries while other logistics also required money from the same allocation.
She explained to journalists on Wednesday in Kitwe that initially, she operated using funds under the President’s office but was grateful that Government had decided to allocate some funds to her office to enhance transparency.
Recently, Parliament approved K1.5 billion allocation for the office of the First Lady.
The First Lady said the funds would enhance transparency and accountability in the administration and support services to the office of the First Lady.
“The budget allocation is meant for members of staff who need to be paid salaries and also for fuel for the vehicles that we use. It’s not meant for my salary and we are thankful that Government has recognised us,” she said.
[Times of Zambia]
How many members of staff are we talking abt here. Am meant to understand the staff are already state house offficals already onthe govt payroll
Being the presidos wife is not a constitutional office madam. You cannot legally allocate funds to a non existent office. Your professional job added a lot of value to Zambia…you should not have left it just cos your husband found a new job. (with limited tenure!)
great mind!
and who will do the auditing since your office has no recognised structure in governemnt….can madam anna chifungula come to audit yo office?
“Clarifies”. What clarification is here? Even if there was one, it is not her job to clarify government policy. The point is that the allocation is illegal. Which “members of staff” is she referring to? There is no such office in Zambia as “First Lady” and as such she cannot have members of staff. She should just look for funding elsewhere to run Ubutala Bwabumi. Epela bamayo.
IT WAS PARLIAMENT THAT APPROVED IT. DONT BLAME HER. THE POOR WOMAN WAS ANSWERING A QUESTION THAT WAS PUT ACROS TO HER. IF IT IS NOT CLARIFIED IN YOUR MIND THEN GO AND CRY TO PARLIAMENT. RIGHT NOW ITS WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE. PARLIAMENT CAN EASILY MAKE THIS OFFICE CONSTITUTION AND BITTER GUYS LIKE YOU WILL STILL CONTINUE COMPLAINING.
There’s that word again..’Bitter’ kekekkeke
MAYBE K1.5BN IS FOR ALANGIZI AMONG OTHER THINGS. SHINA THE MATANTA PLIZ. SUBA INGUTU AZAKUPOKA MUCHEMBELE WAKO. THATS WHY HE CAN’T LET GO OF BAROTSELAND. BECOZ HE’LL LOSE SUBA AS WELL. MUTOTOTO & DOBO WAS FOUND BEING SMUGGLED INTO STATE HOUSE…
Salaries? i thought most of the staff are already on govt payroll. seleni tumong’onye money. nifya boma.
Don’t entangle yourself into such issues doc. You are a professional and we respect you as you are. If you start engaging yourself in questionable allocation of public funds to a non-existent/non-constitutional fictitious office you will definitely lose our respect, especially mine. Be careful.
It is tulu….it is tulu…firsti ladi is given slush fundi to pay relatives..it is tulu…u are now open to public audit, procurement rules and regulations, your staff are entailed to pension and benefits of working for you…you should have fuel location…oh and when u use the challneger alone..please pay the pilots and fuel it…Imwe muibachipupa….it is tulu…Be like Mama Betty Kaunda…
I thought the extra money was to cover all her flying around in the Presidential jet.
but she has just said meant for fuel
Under which constitution were you allocated that money?? PF need to priotise things, they cant pay farmers, no water @ UTH, no fuel in Chipata & no mealie meal on the CB yet they are building SATA a retirement house who has another 4years to rule(hoping he wont ask for a second term) now this issue of allocating the fist lady with 1.5billion.Why is she moving away from the old system?? These guys are so self centered am so disappointed
CHAKUCHISA??
Which office?
The first lady would do herself a favour to stay out of the fray! She can not be the one to defend and justify the “daylight robbery” when she does not hold an approved government position. She is well advised to take up her position at UTH and serve the people of Zambia in that capacity.
madam don’t mind about these hhstan they are envy of the good work you are doing for the poor zambians keep it up.bambi tatwamonapo abakashi babo palwalala(hh) it is only him we see donating goods and not the wife.
WALASA
We all respect the doc but this allocation is questionable and putting herself at risk of losing the respect that Zambians have for her. She is hard working and I am proud that she is our First Lady. She needs to shield herself from all these deals. I don’t want to see her being insulted right-left-centre.
What staff is she talking about because the First Lady as an office is not constitutional thus cannot receive a budget allocation from the state! Any recognition from government entails making the necessary legislative provisions first before santa clausing Kaseba illegally with tax payers’n money when there are other constitutionally legal areas that have no budgetary allocation. They will one day have to pay for this.
Now we can see what was meant by more money in your pockets, it was simply for selected individuals
IN ZAMBIA EVERYTHING IS STEALING. 1) WHEN YOU WIN ELECTIONS ITS RIGGING 2) WHEN YOU CHANGE POLITICAL PARTIES ITS BECAUSE YOU ARE BRIBED 3) WHEN CHIEFS VISIT THE PRESIDENT THEN THEY ARE BRIBED. 4) WHEN LITUNGA SAYS HE DOES NOT SUPPORT SECESSION THEN HE IS BRIBED 5) WHEN YOU WIN A TENDER TO CONSTRUCT ROADS THEN YOU HAVE BRIBED 6) WHEN YOU BECOME RICH LIKE MATHANI THEN YOU ARE CORRUPT. 7) WHEN YOUR COMPANY BECOMES BANCKRUPT THEN YOU ARE CORRUPT AND MUST PAY K14b. THE LIST IS ENDLESS. THE BEST IS TO IGNORE SUCH DETRACTERS. ..FULL OF JEALOUSY.
What are you talking about dude?? How can you win a contract without bidding ?? Talking about MATHANI why did KK FTJ & RB jail him, in malawi his bank was closed for corruption and money laundering. You need to start using your brain man corruption is rumpunt in Zambia @ the moment. PF want to make ZED a one party state hence they are trying to get all MPs(opposition) into their party thru monetary means
Iwe Chisenga, mpelako impiya ba pf bakupele because next elections you will be alone my friend
Who is Kaseba?
She shares bed space with our president!
What is wrong with Zambians, the govt tries to legalise something we cry foul. past first ladies have been dishing monies which were not accounted for yet no one complained.
Legalising stealing and corruption, eeh?
Shut up Dada Man!
You do not correct a wrong by creating another wrong. If what the previous first ladies were doing was wrong, the remedy is not to do another wrong.
In a way I can see her point. In the past, Maureen Mwanawasa had the Maureen Mwanawasa Community Initiative, which did not publish the source of money. She kept denying that she was getting money from the government. Instead she insisted that she raised funds from well-wishers. Well, does the organisation still operate? Next, we had Banda’s wife who kept giving donations without accounting for the source of funds. At least by publishing accounts, Dr. Kaseba’s organisation will be transparent. We know where the money comes from and we can see the accounts once they are filed with the appropriate authorities.
THATS RIGHT SRAIGHT AND SIMPLE.
That does not justify this case. So because FTJ used taxpayers money then it’ll be alright for MCS to publicly declare that he’s doing so? What you’re failing to see is that there is no constitutional provision for such an office and therefore we should not acceept this office until the constitution is changed.
You are just dull! Maureen had an NGO and a Director of the same NGO through which high profile organisations channelled their donations to the poor in broad day light. If Maureen used our tax money, there is little doubt it accounted for less than 1% of all. Just accept that your President has misallocated to please the madam but you can blame him on tribe.
Alaaa, apapne mwayamba ukwiba? Ba Kaseba naimwe sure? Ichalo ichi. Anyway ubomba mwibala ………
Hey @Mopao Mokonzi, stealing at plot 1 started from day 1. Waziba ka.
Well, now the monkeys are in the maize field!
First Lady should learn from what is happening to Simone Gbagbo and learn to keep away from Politics, at the end of the day she may be asked to account for all this money and if she fails may end up in jail depending on who will be President when her husband leaves. Remember Chiluba never imagined that Mwanawasa would take him to caught and the case of being a thief shortened his life. Do not say that you were not advised by those who care for your future and that of your small children, remember there are mothers in jail all over the world.
I meant court
muna vota for Sata so dont complain
Awemba mukuba manin’gi ! Muleiba ukunya! Tiza mimangani. Muzangena mundende! Christine, we will put you in a male prison so that you enjoy yourself everyday for the 10 years you will be in prison. Your husband was pretending that he has a heart for people. Little did we know that it was actually Hate for people. Don’t kubeba indeed!
That does not justify this case. So because FTJ used taxpayers money then it’ll be alright for MCS to publicly declare that he’s doing so? What you’re failing to see is that there is no constitutional provision for such an office and therefore we should not acceept this office until the constitution is changed. PF cannot be following the MMD example of just breaking the law because you can. This is not what we voted for. We wanted change! Yaba!
Please Dr Kaseba give us a break. Which constitution or law are is the current government using to allocate funds to the office that does exist.
Money allocated allocated to the office of the President is enough to cater for the First Lady. If
It doesn`t matter if her office is allocated the money either directly or indirectly.At the end of the day her office needs money for operations and other things.The whole thing is just an academic process.It is like removing the name tag on a Toyota corolla and replacing it with Jeep.It doesn`t change the fact that it is still a corolla.So whether she gets the money through the presidents office or directly to her office it doesn`t change the fact that it is the same amount going to her office from tax payers.
inutu suba should audit yo books.
that way it will b independent
Wasting time advising stone-headed grade 7 as for the wife let us prepare Mukebeko prison to accommodate her after MCS leaves office
The budget includes service fees for the junior doctor.
Of course they have to be paid
Like she is telling kinder garden children. To start with its our money as tax payers in question. her office holds no constitutional recognizance and as such on what basis she receive such allocation? Her work if anything is replication what the min of community is supposed to be doing. Infact her activeness will undermine the ministry and seriously compromises the priory of allocation as the overall boss(her husband) will in practice be sympathetic to her cause. We need order and sanity in the way govt is run, one day if children of the president will form their own office and request budgetary allocation, lets be careful and with foresight avoiding setting bad precedences.
chakuchisa
Ka junior doctor kaleumfwa fye bwino. More money in his pocket.
Ba doctor ikalenifye tondolo. Twalalanda ifingi.
I saw the junior Doctor in Kitwe in Wednesday
Infact the president’s allocation by default covers the first lady, her ‘office’ is in her husband who is the one elected and recognized. The K1.5bn should help build boreholes at UTH or help pay the farmers who are still crying foul.
The so-called first lady is beginning to open her mouth carelessly and thinks she is now too powerful. First of all, in what capacity is she making all this waffle, is she an MP? If she is wise enough she should keep quiet and stay clear. People are asking and rightly so, how will the K1.5 billion be accounted for because nobody will dare audit your accounts. Surely Zambia is being mortgaged in broad daylight.
I also saw him pa ka lodge.
Office of the first lady!!!!!!! my foot, wether u r helping the poor or not, the bottom line is that u r not supposed to use Tax payers money. Even without ur office, the prone and needy are supposed to receive government help through some ministry like Community dev. or disaster mgt team of the office of the vice president.**==8-x
The cheek of it! She should know better than to openly defend the indefensible. She must think Zambia is a nation of morons. Our establishment structure does not have such an office in existence. She is actually working at cross purposes with what recognised institutions are supposed to be doing (Ministries of Health and Community Development). She is an intelligent woman who seems to have lost her moral compass. We expected better from her . Rules and regulations cannot be bent and manipulated to suit Dr. Kaseba! Zambia has functioned before without what she is advancing, which work can be done through established government offices. I am disappointed at her reasoning.
This is total nonsense. Where is this office and who are these employees? Were the jobs advertised and were people given the opportunity to apply? Her employees are just her sisters, Bene Sally and the rest of the Kasebas. Maureen Mwanawasa had her sister, Mrs Nkunika, working for MMCI. What utter nonsense!! Where is the initiative now? It died with Mwanawasa. H.O.P.E. under Vera Chiluba, died with her divorce from FTJ!They just want to feed their own familes while us degree holders go jobless. The first Mrs Sata would have made a better First Lady, not this husband grabber. Mrs Sata, my foot! Show us the marriage ceritficate!
So when a thief explains how stolen money was used we call it transparency…!
operations are at a cost hence the 1.5 b but i expected the first lady to remain silent as they take back the cash to the presidents office while she continues to draw from there as a listening govt..doc sort out your issues quickly.
1Ki 21:23 And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.May God make you a widow quick in Jesus’ name!
Past experience tells us that these ‘institutions’, HOPE Foundation, MMCI , Office of the First Lady, whatever you may wish to call them are eventually used as campaign tools, particularly during election time..this is when the real looting starts.
Imwe bantu,there is nothing in the World called office of the first lady.And the staff allocated to her are paid by government,for example her body guard would most likely come from the police and she gets paid as such.Mama,insoni limo shisuma,you and your hubby are being shameless kleptomaniacs.And this thing of each first lady having an organisation,what is it kanshi.Only the young Thandiwe and the late Betty Kaunda,MHSRIP,has shamed these husband grabbers!!
The PF you wanted. What do you expect putting a monkey in the maize field? Zambians havent seen anything yet, this is nothing. Dont kubeba at work. I magine Nsanda ku RDA, iye tata mayo eeeh? Mutuleee!!!! Somebody help.
More money in the pocket, wait and see this wonman moves just like Bwezani muzachiona
Staff my foot. Are’nt you ashamed of yourself? Seeing what is happening at UTH and many other health istitutions you could have refused the money on moral grounds and asked them to sort out the water, Ultra sound machines, Maternity equipment and many other things that would have benefited more locals You work at UTH, for crying out loud do you not have any concious left within you? Mind you opening the cancer centres is a very good thing but don’t think that people will remeber you for that when you cuff up. Bear that in mind!!!
Bloggers…who is the Junior doc??
This woman is a beneficiary of “glorified plunder”. She is shamelessly trying to justify allocation of money into her “kitty” which is officially non existent. She will of course spend the money lavishly on her wiles. She could have mantained some decorum, kept her distance from the debate and let other nincompoops argue the case on her behalf. Smart or clever, which is she? (probably just stupid and foolish in this instance). I take exception to abuse of meagre resources as a tax payer – especially by those that should know better!
Chimbokaila should be renovated in preparation for Dr. Kaseba’s stay in 2016 for unlawfully receiving tax payers money
Kaseba you r sinking so low. Your mind has been corrupted with money. Have some dignity and stay away from active politics and money laundering. So cheap…….
Zambia shall be saved
‘operations’?
did she give any examples? and was there any constitutional backing?
You really are hurt with this 1.5billion. Are there no lawyers in Zambia to fight this in court? You will cry all you want she got this through your parliament so beat the dust
Ukwa and Patriotic front are liers and day light robbers !
There is no constitutional provision for any office in Zambia so let’s just find another argument. Like the fact that Zambia doesn’t need a First lady’s offfice unless it is an NGO