Curb waste, State told

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 14:55:17 +0000

By MAILESI BANDA

 GOVERNMENT should formulate measures to ensure they reduce on the loss of national resources by public institutions before considering International Monetary Fund resources, Action Aid, tax justice officer, Musonda Kabinga, has advised.

Mr. Kabinga said without a prope formulated and transparent tracking system of public resourcs,  funds from the IMF were not safe.

Speaking when he gave a presentation on the 2016 trends report presented by the financial intelligence centre, he noted that it was sad that the Auditor General’s report continued to report anomalies in the financial management of national resources.

“It is sad to note that from the 2016 national budget 5.6 percent of the budget was lost through unconfirmed reports of bribery hence we propose that the Government finds a solution to this before seeking the IMF funding as these funds risk being misused,“ he said.

He explained that about K3 billion of national resources were reported to be lost, adding that that raised concern to the growth of the economy.

He called for concerted efforts from both the Government and the private sector in ensuring that national resources were prudently utilised.

Mr Kabinga noted that corporate funds were being externalised through over invoicing of goods and services being provided by foreign suppliers who were unfortunately being preferred over local suppliers.

He urged the government to monitor the invoicing systems in the country if national resources were to be preserved.

He lamented that institutions were giving business opportunities to companies they benefited from.