Ministers lose extra cars

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 09:59:00 +0000

By KALOBWE BWALYA

GOVERNMENT has withdrawn utility motor vehicles from cabinet ministers in an effort to reduce expenditure as part of President Lungu’s belt-tightening measures to protect the economy.

National Development Planning Minister Lucky Mulusa said this in Lusaka yesterday during the Patriotic Front (PF) interactive forum at Charisma Hotel.

Mr Mulusa said the government was not desperate for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) because it is an investment in perception.

He explained that the IMF was just an investment in perception because previously, the institution would come with ‘over the sleeve’ conditions that brought social discontent.

Mr Mulusa said Government had induced a fiscal discipline that included reduced spending on government officials such as cabinet ministers who previously had two motor vehicles.

The vehicles included one utility and a personal-to-holder vehicle but the former had been withdrawn to save revenue.

Additionally, Mr Mulusa said, the government made a decision to get rid of payslips. As a result, the government would save up to US$8 million per annum from this measure.

Mr Mulusa said getting rid of paper payslips and going electronic was part of the many steps to expand its good fiscal targets.

“We have introduced efficiencies in the way we do things. We are resequencing infrastructure roll-out by starting with projects that are economically viable to promote efficiency and results in a thin spread out of resources.

The minister said the government was now more interested in perception because of its relationship with investor confidence.

And Mr Mulusa said the invocation of Article 31 in the Constitution by President Edgar Lungu would not affect the economy of the country because it was done to prevent the country’s economy from going down