By Wezzie Gausi:
The Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament has said it will engage the Treasury on allegations that the ministry is changing the budget without consulting Parliament.
This follows revelations by the National Registration Bureau that the budget that was approved by Parliament was reduced by K177 million.
Committee chairperson Gladys Ganda told this publication that it is illegal to tamper with the budget when it has been passed by Parliament.
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She said, once the budget has been passed, it is law and can only be changed through Parliament again.
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“As such, we will be engaging the Treasury to find out what is happening. As we all know, a budget becomes a legal document once it has been passed.
“If there is a need for amendments, those are mainly done during the mid-year budget review, which has not yet happened.
“So, we want to get to the bottom of this issue to know what is happening,” Ganda said.
Economist Betchani Tchereni concurred with Ganda on the point that, once passed, the budget becomes law— authorising the Treasury to spend funds based on approved allocations.
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He, however, said the Public Finance Management Act is also clear on the responsibility of the Minister of Finance.
“Expenditures that are urgent may be made for Parliament to ratify when they [lawmakers] meet. Usually, this is a way of making sure that the government is not crippled.
“When such assumptions also do not hold, it calls for value judgement on the part of those charged with the affairs of running the welfare function of the government,” Tchereni said.
Secretary to the Treasury Macdonald Mafuta Mwale was not readily available for his comment on the issue.
The government budgeted for K3.87 trillion (24.9 percent of gross domestic product, GDP) against K2.55 trillion (16.8 percent of GDP) in revenues and grants, translating to K1.23 trillion (8.1 percent of GDP) of fiscal deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
