Thank you Mr President for paying retirees, now pay contractors and suppliers

Thank you Mr President for paying retirees, now pay contractors and suppliers
Dear Editor,
THE news that funds have been released to pay part of the pension arrears owed to retirees is welcome. It will undoubtedly help lift thousands of our old men and women who served this country in the public service out of their misery.
As much as this development is welcome, we wish to implore President Hakainde Hichilema to expedite the payment of debts owed to contractors and suppliers.
Payments to pensioners and poor people is an ongoing government programme which even the PF administration prioritised. The former Finance Minister Dr Bwalya Ng’andu managed to dismantle half of the historical arrears owed to retired civil servants through regular payments.
Mr. President, as much as you would like to be praised for paying them, we wish to remind you that your government has an obligation to pay former government workers and so when such is done, it is not miraculous.
However, your continued failure to pay contractors and suppliers is harming the economy adversely.
The cash squeeze and liquidity issues that the majority of our people are feeling is because the bulk of cash which should be circulating in the economy is held up at Treasury.
Failure to pay contractors and suppliers is detrimental to the economy and should be addressed urgently.
Some of these contractors and suppliers attached their properties to obtaining the loans they used to finance the orders to supply. It is therefore unfair to keep holding on to their payments on the pretext of conducting an audit which has produced no tangible results.
They risk losing their houses, land and other valuable assets which they used as collateral because of your failure to pay them.
Mr. President Sir, please pay the local contractors and suppliers and get the wheels of the economy turning again.
I thank you.
BOWMAN CHILOSHA LUSAMBO.