NO FRIVOLOUS EXPENSES – HH
FRIVOLOUS expenditure such as large delegations to meetings and travelling business class or first class will not be allowed , President Hakainde Hichilema has said.
And President Hichilema has tasked newly appointed Finance Minister, Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane to seal all financial loopholes and ensure that the resources are channeled to key areas but most importantly fix the debt situation.
The Head of State said this yesterday at State House in Lusaka when he swore in Dr Musokotwane as Finance Minister.
Mr Hichilema said Government officials needed to be prudent because resources were scarce.
“And how we utilize resources that are scarce, it is critical to serve the people of Zambia. Frivolous expenditure has no room. Large delegation to meetings will not be there. Travelling business class, first class something that many of us have never done but because we are now in Government, that will not be there,” President Hichilema said.
The President who congratulated Dr Musokotwane for his well-deserved appointment tasked him to come up with a progressive budget that would begin to realign the way of managing public resources.
“We need a progressive budget that will begin to realign our way of managing public resources, away from consumptions, away from wastage and more towards investments and revenue generations. Financial leakages, the bleeding going on must be closed. They must be patched up. Patch up the wounds driven by the action of the past. Going forward, we don’t want to open up new wounds,” he said.
He said his Government was taking over a country whose treasury was empty and called for fiscal discipline.
President Hichilema however said that even with the empty treasury, his administration will work round the clock to dismantle the accrued debt mountain.
He said he was alive to the fact that his victory was youth centered and as such the Ministry of Finance was key in ensuring that the UPND Alliance economic vision was given life as that would lead to many other developmental programs such as jobs and business opportunities for Zambian youths.
President Hichilema also pledged o want to deal with illicit financial flows and corruption by allowing institutions that have legal mandate to fight corruption, but not driven on vindictive lines.
Mr Hichilema named Dr Musokotwane, to his second stint as Zambia’s finance minister having served in the same capacity during MMD Government of President Rupiah Banda.
By SIMON MUNTEMBA
