Leader of opposition tells Minister to cut presidential travels
Leader of opposition in parliament has told Minister of finance that he left out an important point in his economic recovery plan of cutting foreign travels of president and ministers which is draining forex
Kondwani Nankhumwa was responding to a ministerial statement on the recovery plan following the devaluation of kwacha which Simplex Chithyola Banda presented in parliament on Tuesday 14th November
According to Nankhumwa Chakwera has undertaken 40 trips since assuming office of presidency three years ago and travels of ministers are more than enough
He said the foreign trips are eroding foreign reserves as the president takes a huge entourage when going to other countries
The opposition leader then asked the minister to increase the number of cyclone survivors who will benefit from social cash transfer program.
In his response Chithyola Banda said will outline in the budget review statement on Friday the measures on essential commodities such as fertilizer and medicine
However, chairperson of agriculture committee Sameer Suleman irked leader of the house when he said is afraid of public funds because finance minister is accused of stealing money belonging to Global Fund
Richard Chimwendo Banda demanded Suleman to bring evidence this time because he has been telling lies in parliament about several ministers but failed to provide facts
Responding to the accusation Chithyola Banda said the remarks by Suleman are political because there is no court that found him guilty of stealing donor funds
Reports indicate that Chithyola’s NGO gave back 80, 496 dollars to Global Fund which is approximately 136 million kwacha.
Therefore, the first deputy speaker Madalitso Kazombo ordered Suleman to bring the evidence tomorrow (Wednesday).
