National Assembly passes 18 votes

Members of Parliament on Thursday passed 18 vote allocations, marking the beginning of the Committee of Supply for 2014/2015 Mid-Year Budget Review.

Government is seeking the authorisation for extra resources amounting to K32 billion.

However, not all ministries and departments have seen an increase in allocation as some have suffered  drastic reductions which has not gone down well with some legislators.

Of the notable votes passed, the State Residences have had their allocation trimmed with Ministry of Economic Planning and Development and Department of Human Resource Management and Development allocations reduced by over half.

Members of Parliament spent time debating government’s move to have the vote allocation for the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development reduced from over K1 billion to over K651 million.

Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe justified the reduction as a result of “idle money” within the ministry.

“There are certain projects within the ministry that did not take place in the period under review, key among them stadium projects. This has resulted in the aforementioned idle money,” he said.

This did not go down well with some members including MCP’s Salima North Kaphantengo Yona who labelled government as not being serious as that money would have been used accordingly.

“When I said the money is idle it does not mean that as government we have got nothing to do with it. It’s just that the money was not used as it’s projects are yet to take off,” responded Gondwe.

Still, Salima South  PP legislator Uladi Mussa, PP and Dowa North East, MCP MP Sam Kawale, questioned government’s decision to have the allocation reduced.

Gondwe, however, said the remaining amount would be enough to run the activities of the ministry with more resources expected in the 2015/2016 budget to be tabled in June.

Committee of Supply continues Friday morning as members resume sitting. n