Tue, 03 Oct 2017 10:51:18 +0000
GOVERNMENT has saved K1 million since the launch of the e-voucher mode of dispatching inputs for the Farmer Input Support Programme in the 2016/2017 farming season, Finance Minister, Felix Mutati has disclosed.
Mr Mutati said by going electronic in the dispatching of inputs, the number of beneficiaries had reduced from 1, 600 farmers to having 1, 000 farmers adding that the electronic process had removed ghost farmers from the register.
Speaking during a public discussion on the 2018 national budget held in Lusaka over the weekend, Mr Mutati said the government was hoping to improve domestic revenue resource mobilisation by cleaning up the system.
He also said the Finance ministry was working towards cleaning up the payroll and remove ghost employees that had continued to benefit from Government resources.
“We are also cleaning up the government workers payroll since it currently accounts for 51 percent of domestic revenue. We started the process with the Ministry of fFnance and we have managed to save K3 million just from the Finance,” he said.
Mr Mutati said that cleaning up the systems was the only guaranteed way of generating domestic revenue, adding that public finance management was key to attaining local finance mobilisation.
He said that proper public resource management would help the country widen the domestic revenue base.
“We need to fix the law in relation to public finance management because it is defective. There is need for a proper framework on how to deal with the abuse of resources and what are the penalties for those who break the law in order to attain wealth creation,” Mr Mutati said.
