Parliament nods to 29 budgetary allocations
Parliament Tuesday approved mid-year budgetary allocations to 29 out of 52 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
The vote for Ministry of Sports and Culture was deferred due to typing errors.
The 29 approved votes include those of Office of the President and Cabinet, Office of the Vice President, State Residences, Judiciary, Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, Ministry of Education and the Directorate of Public Officers’ Assets Declaration.
The development means the lawmakers have 23 more votes to pass before approving a K20 billion cut from the initial K1.149 2016/2017 budget.
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Goodall Gondwe, said increment in personal emoluments for the junior officers necessitated the upward adjustment in budgetary allocations to some MDAs.
According to Gondwe, the same reason has also prompted the government to deduct up to K25 billion from some departments such as the Department of Human Resource Management and Development.
Some of the notable departments whose allocations have been increased based on personal emoluments needs include State Residences, Judiciary, Office of the Vice President and Directorate of Assets Declaration and ministries.
“The proportion of staff at State House is more of juniors than seniors and they needed an increase of about 15 percent and it is the same for other departments Gondwe said.
He also said the upward adjustment in National Audit Office (Nao) allocation is meant to financially support the audit agency in the process of probing more on the K236 billion Cashgate.
Allocation for Nao has been moved from the initial K1,520,174,950 to K2,077,326,508.
“The National Audit Office needs to bring in auditors for the so-called K577 billion Cashgate and for other audits and that is why we have increased their allocation,” he said.
He also said allocation for the National Assembly has been revised upwards due to extended meetings, including the budget meeting.
Some lawmakers, however, said the extra K20 million to the Directorate of Assets Declaration is not enough for the directorate’s oversight role, to which Gondwe said the allocation for the office was already increased in the initial allocation.
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