State House backs extra K120 million
The State House has backed the addition of K120 million to the State Residences vote in the revised national budget, saying the additional money will be used for renovating State residences.
State House Press Secretary Brian Banda said this when he addressed a press briefing Monday.
“It is true that State residences asked for additional funds and its vote has been increased by K120 million from the initial K6.5 billion. The money will be used for renovating State houses which are in bad shape.
“For many years in the past, there has been money [provided] for such renovations but we do not know where the money was going. What we can independently say is that most of the State houses are in bad shape,” he said.
Banda added that, even with the additional K120 million, the vote for State residences remained lower now than was the case in the past.
“A year before Dr [Lazarus] Chakwera came in power, State residences were allocated K15 billion and, today, we are talking about K6.5 billion. We have reduced the vote by over half and records are there; you can cross-check with Parliament,” he said.
