Parliament To Meet Early In 2017: House Adjourns Sine Die Today

The Malawi National Assembly is expected to meet much earlier next year possibly in February to allow the House do away with the business which could not be finished during the Meeting which has come to an end today.

Govt Punishes MPs; Worked Till Night On Tuesday

Leader of House in the National Assembly, George Chaponda on Tuesday forced Members of Parliament to work till the night hours following prolonged debates that caused delays in passing the budgetary allocation made to each various Government ministries and departments.

Normally, the National Assembly is adjourned at 17:00 hours each sitting day, however, this was not the case on Tuesday as the House sitting hours were extended till late in order to recover the lost time during the day.

Parliament Pass Anatomy Act Amendment: Impose Life Sentences, No Fines

Malawians took to the streets demanding death
Penalty 

Anatomy Act Amendment bill seeking Life Imprisonment has been passed by the National Assembly almost 5 hours after Mulanje South legislator, Bon Kalindo led hundreds to present petition to the National Assembly demanding activation of Death Penalty to convicts on offences related to albino killings.

There was cheers and clapping of hands in the House, showing excitement that finally Malawi will stop ritual killings of persons with albinism through life sentences.

Dowa East legislator, Richard Chimwendo Banda presented the Bill under Private Members Bill to amend Anatomy Act (Cap 34:03) so as to make the commission of offences therein punitive and deterrent.

PP Says First Half Of 2015/16 Budget Underperfomed

Jooma

The opposition People's Party (PP) says it does not agree with Finance Minister claim that the the performance of budget in the first half of 2015 to 2016 fiscal year was good.

When delivering Midyear budget statement in the National Assembly, Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe informed the House that "The performance of the budget this year has been better than before except for the projected expenditure on FISP." 

He said the bulk of expenditure on FISP relates to the imports of fertilizers and in view of the escalated deep depreciation of the currency and the cost of procuring fertilizers.

However, People's Party spokesperson on finance matters in the National Assembly, Ralph Jooma said the performance of the first half of the budget was not all well.

“Am not of the same view, because the minister has already stated that he has underperformed on FISP side by K26 billion. So, that means that the Minister will have to be forced to borrow domestically in order to pay for the FISP.

If you have got arrears it doesn’t mean that you are performing well, if you haven’t spend and yet you are owing your people, is just a question of when you are going to pay them. So it’s not performing well it’s actually just a postponement of an underperformance.” 

Opposition PP, MCP Vary Opinion On Budget Reduction

Gondwe; Revised budget downwards

The two main opposition political parties in the National Assembly are holding varied views regarding the announced proposal to reduce the 2015/16 budget by K23.7 billion for the second half of the fiscal year.

People’s Party (PP) says the reduction of the approved budget of K929.7 billion will create more problems than solving them as Malawi Congress Party (MCP) welcome the move but only skeptical over promises that the country should expect good economic environment soon.

Minister of Finance, Goodall Gondwe announced on Friday in the National Assembly that Government has decided to revise downwards the 2015/16 budget for the upcoming second half of the fiscal year with cuts in some areas and prioritization on resources for important matters including food.

Finance spokesperson for PP in the National Assembly, Ralph Jooma said in an interview that it is sad to hear that Government would like to revise downwards the budget instead of asking the House to revise the budget upwards since the original budget value has been reduced by half due to devaluating local currency.

“We don’t welcome the reduction as PP, we should have been expecting an increase to total budget because the Malawi Kwacha has already lost its value.” He said 

PP is worried that original K930 billion budget passed in July was framed when Malawi Kwacha was pegged at K400 to a dollar. Now that Kwacha has depreciated by 100 percent where it is now being changed to a dollar at close to K800, the same amount can only pay half of the planned activities.

“Therefore we should have expected the Budget to be improved upwards in Malawi Kwacha if we are to achieve the objectives of this budget but coming here and say that the budget is being reduced even in Malawi Kwacha is a mockery and it is a disappointment to Malawians. What we expect is that people’s expectations will not be met, this budget will not achieve its objectives and it is a total waste of financial year for Malawian” said Jooma

Chakwera

However, Leader of Opposition Parties in Parliament and President of Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Lazarus Chakwera gave thumbs up for the Minister decision to revise the budget downwards.

He said his party was happy to hear the Minister admitting in his statement that things are not well in this country and more money will be borrowed for hunger response.

The MCP President said some of the promises in the statement including on stabilizing economy were not new yet nothing is happening  “But you will recall that in the past they have given us this week this month’s; staff like that. They tell us that there is hope at the end of the tunnel, I hope it is not an oncoming trend”

“There is not much that is new really” Chakwera added

He continued; “The performance of this administration leaves a lot to be desired and so because of the past history it is kind of hard to tell that they are now telling us the truth. We will have to wait and see” 

Gondwe led into the chamber

Minister of Finance when delivering his statement on Friday did admit that the economy is still passing through turbulent times. 

“I regret that we have not yet established a stable macroeconomic environment in which low inflation and interest rates prevail, and where the variability of the exchange rate is narrow and predictable.” He said 

Gondwe informed the House that Inflation has stubbornly remained high since the shock devaluation of 2012, apart from a short period between May 2014 to April 2015 when inflation decelerated to 18.2 percent, thereafter it has kept on crawling up to 24.9 per cent in December 2015.

But he assumingly said last month’s decline of the rate of inflation to 23.5 percent is a welcome sign of light at the end of the tunnel. 

“In general however, the rate has remained high at an average of 23 percent during the period in question. In the circumstances, interest rates have also remained high, with the policy interest rate at the Reserve Bank of Malawi remaining for a long time at 25 percent, and lately increased further back to 27percent. In tandem, prime lending interest rates at commercial banks have also remained painfully high.” He noted

Gondwe then touched on the power of the local currency which is facing sharp decline against major trading currencies. He offered hope that the point of equilibrium for the exchange rate has been reached already since free floating exchange rate policy was adopted in May 2012 and “it is therefore expected that the rate should stabilise soon and those speculations that are perpetuating the depreciation should take note of this."

Peoples Party Wants Prudence in the Implementation of 2015-2016 Budget

Jooma 

The opposition People’s Party (PP) expects prudence in the implementation of the appropriated K923 billion 2015/2016 budget and warns that parliament will keep monitoring the budget implementation.

Spokesperson for the party on Finance matters in the National Assembly, Hon Ralph Jooma said in an interview that the Minister has to stick to the Public Finance Management Act and Appropriation bill guidelines.

Jooma said there is no need to overspend the money or spend outside the budget line, “Now that we have passed the budget which we are calling it a largest budget in this country has ever had, K923 billion, is quite a lot of money”

He said “The expectation is that government should make sure that it implements the budget to the full.”

Hon Jooma warned that since the parliament has been allocated enough money, the committees of parliament will make sure that it monitors the implementation of this budget.

Responding to this call, Leader of House in the National Assembly, Honorable Francis Kasaila says government will ensure that the budget is implemented as approved by the whole house.

“Our expectation is that our colleagues in the offices will start working hard from the 1st July and we want to see some impact from this budget” He said, “Figures in the budget will mean nothing if there will be nothing tangible happening on the ground”

Kasaila who promised that the cabinet work hard to monitor the implementation of the budget, jettison out fears of misappropriation and future cashgate scam.

He said since Bingu Wa Mutharika regime particularly the period of 2009 to 20012, DPP government tried to monitor and supervise government workers in preventing misappropriation, “indeed there is a very clear testimony from the analysis that has been made by the auditors that if we look at the reconciliation reports the figures that could not be reconciled in 2009 to 2012 were minimal but that figure rose sharply from K20 billion to K300 billion in one year (2013, during Joyce Banda administration). But in 2014 that figure went down again to K20 billion.”

Hon Kasaila said their DPP government will make sure that it reconcile the figures and make payment to the right people to prevent future cashgate and misappropriation “We want to assure Malawians that we are going to work hard as government and with the reforms taking place in the Ministry of Finance we believe that the situation is going to improve” 

Opposition PP, MCP Holds Different Opinion Over 2015/2016 Budget

Finanance Minister Goodall Gondwe

The two main opposition parties in Parliament have different opinion regarding hope that 2015/2016 financial year budget estimates will promote investiment and production.

Finance Minister Honorable Goodall Gondwe on Friday, announced K901.6 Billion budget estimates which the minister said will be domestically financed and other social sectors will be supported through off-budget from donors. 

Both, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and Peoples Party (PP) had expectations that the budget shall allocate more resources for investiments and incentives for businesses.

The finance Minister announced that from K901.6 billion, the recurrent expenditure will be K674.6 billion, while development expenditure will amount to K224.0 billion from revised K189.2 billion in 2014/15 budget.

Gondwe said from this Development expenditure, some K173.0 billion will be funded by external resources (development Part I), while K50.0 billion will be funded using domestic resources (development Part II).

“Yes somehow we see positive steps because we can see that about 26% of the budget will be for the development” reacted Ralph Jooma PP spokesperson on Finance matters in parliament and acknowledged government saying it is a way to go for economic progress.

He said is happy to note that K5 billion will be forwarded to councils to address issues of grassroots development, K6.5 billion for the improvement of city roads, while K3 billion for students loan and grants.

Hon Ralph Jooma: This is an investment based
Budget 

He further noted with appraisal that awarding of contracts will be based on assessing number of Malawians to be employed by the company saying this will empower a lot of Malawians.

However, Jooma did not welcome Finance Minister’s decision to allocate few resources to some social sectors because are to receive off-budget funding. Hon Jooma said such is a worry some development since off-budget from donors are often unreliable and moreover, government has no control over such support including on selecting priority areas to which such support should be directed to.

“We can’t rely on that” he said, “As members of Parliament I think we should look at budget and not anything off-budget financing”

He also demands the explanation of the breaking of the allocated K7 billion for decent houses of which the minister admitted that only K2 billion has been used.

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) who earlier said expected the budget that; is explicit on how government intends to solve mess in Subsidy programme; offer incentives to businesses and clears outstanding arrears, has described the whole budget as “Not Pro-Poor and not stimulating Productivity.”

Hon Joseph Njobvuyalema: This is not pro-poor
Budget and does not promote productivity

In his view, Hon Joseph Njobvuyalema MCP spokesperson on finance matters in parliament says “Government should look at real sectors in the country which would promote growth and productivity. That’s not what we have done and it is disappointing”

He said though the budget has allocated more resources to Agriculture, it fall short of comprehensive strategies to sustain the sector in times of calamities especially droughts. He suggested that the budget should have emphasized on irrigation.

The MCP spokesperson emphasized that this budget should have put much focus on strategically allocating resources as means to boost the productivity in agriculture especially on irrigation schemes, commercializing the sector, livestock production even on the tourism and mining sectors.

“The poor people will not benefit” he said, “Mostly they are also budgeting on off-budget, donations these things are outside our plans and we cannot trust that they can stimulate our productivity.” 

He said government has misdirected its priorities in the budget which he also said the budget has only reflected views of professionals and not poor Malawians “It is a very disappointing plan” he added.

Get full budget statement hereRead or Download

MCP, PP Expects Investment Based Budget

Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development is expected this afternoon to present 2015/2016 National Budget in the National Assembly.

Hon Goodall Gondwe is to present a budget statement whose estimates are approximately up to K900 billion.

Expectations from Malawi Congress Party and Peoples Party

Two major opposition parties spokesperson on finance matters in the national assembly have emphasized that government should bring budget that outlines how it intends to promote productivity and less consumption.

According to Peoples Party (PP) Spokesperson on Budget and Finance Matters in the National Assembly honorable Ralph Jooma, this year's budget has to provide not less than 30% to investment and development with minimal allocation to consumption.

"It must be investment budget otherwise we are going to continue facing a lot of problems in this country." Said Jooma

He noted that focus on investments will help Malawi to realise the growth of private sector and alleviate poverty among Malawians rather than budget which focus more on consumption. He said saving little by little will see Malawi in five year time have stable economy.

Similarly, MCP spokesman for Finance matters in parliament honorable Joseph Njobvuyalema said he expects budget which focus much on Incentives for businesses as one way of enhancing economic productivity.

He also mentioned that since government has expressed its continued focus on Subsidy Programme, this year's budget will not add up to anything if there is no clear explanation as well as effective outline of how the mess that characterised the Subsidy Programmes shall be wipeout out so that it benefits Malawians.

Hon Jobvuyalema also expects to hear how government will sort out its outstanding arrears with various companies.

MSB Sale; Get To Know Why Opposition MPs Says Big 'No'

Malawi Government has stiffened its head to sell the Malawi Savings Bank (MSB). There are so many backing to that; from legal aspect of the process of the selling of this national treasure which it has been argued that no one can halt the process, lack of enough capital to sustain the running of this institution and many other reasons the Malawi government is trying to justify on the sale.

A lot of human rights activists, economists and various experts in various fields have in the name of patriotism argued much on this ongoing topic of the sale of MSB. Some have strongly spoken against the sale while others supporting the government move to go ahead with sale.

PP Wants Prudence In Implementation of 2014/2015 Supplementary Budget

PP Wants Prudence in Implementation of 2014/2015 Supplementary Budget

Jooma: Standing 

Peoples Party (PP) has stressed importance that government be prudent when implementing 2014/2015 Supplementary Budget which has extra K32 billion. 

Spokesperson for the party on Finance matters in Parliament hon. Ralph Jooma says government should endeavor to utilise and channel the resources as passed by the National Assembly last week for the benefit of the rural poor.

Tuesday last week National Assembly authorized the government to use total sum of K769.2 billion following passing of the Supplementary Appropriation Bill of 2014/2015 financial year.

"As PP we understood the reasons why the Finance Minister was asking for extra resources" said Jooma, who singled out depreciation of Kwacha in the middle of implementation of the budget and debt interest for statutory expenditure as valid reasons that government gave the House to pass the extra resources.

He said, it was necessary that following depreciation of Malawi Kwacha the House had to approve extra resources for government to obtain the same value of the approved budget as well as enable government to meet some of the commitments like FISP and others in full.

"Finance Minister was asking for K32 billion extra money which we have just approved in the House because we are satisfied that he had to get that money in order to implement budget as a whole.”

“Our advice to government is that they should make sure that this money should go for intended purpose, should be used to serve the votes that were intended to go but also to trickle down to the poor because at the end of the day it is the poor person in the remote area who we are concerned with.”

Speaker's Ruling To Instill Peace In The National Assembly

PP MPs protested over Ngwira's suspension

Leader of House in the National Assembly Honorable Francis Lazaro Kasaila says the ruling to be made this Monday by Speaker of National Assembly Richard Msowoya will help to bring back order in the house.

Kasaila in an interview admit that the house was in chaos in the last two days of the third week of this budget sitting following the disagreements that emerged in the house in particular on Thursday when the Second Deputy Speaker was forced to invoke rule 105 to Mzimba Hora MP Hon Christopher Mzomera Ngwira over misconduct and that the member should not attend proceedings for two days.