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.” 

Kabwila, Chakhwantha Bail Bond Extended: Fears Treason Case

Malawi Police have left two Malawi Congress Party (MCP) legislatures, Jessie Kabwila and Peter Chakhwantha in panic after informing them on Friday that their bail bond has been extended to 18th March 2016.

As a condition to their bail, Salima North-west legislature Kabwila and Lilongwe South-West legislature, Chakhwantha on Friday appeared at Area 30 Police Headquarters and were left gob-smacked to hear that their bail has been extended and should appear again to Police on 18th March. 

MCP supporters on Monday evening following
Kabwira arrest

Kabwila, spokesperson for MCP and Chairperson for Women Caucus in Parliament was arrested on Monday on her way to Germany Embassy to seek asylum while Chakhwantha, Chairperson of Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament surrendered himself to Police on Tuesday and were both charged with treason over Whatsapp conversation. However, Inspector General of Police Lexten Kachama on Wednesday clarified that the two were only called for cautioning and were never charged with any offense.

The two legislatures said they are surprised that Director of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has contradicted Police IG’s earlier statement regarding the arrests by extending their bail.

“We waited there for an hour then we were ushered into the office of the Director of the CID, it is where we got the shock of our lives where they told us that they are going to extend our bail bond to 18th March the very same day this House (National Assembly Meeting) will be rising.” Explains Chakhwantha

Chakhwantha reacted that the extension of this bail is a confirmation that Police would like to pursue Treason case against them

“This is something very strange because we understand that the IG had told the nation that we were never arrested and we are not on any charge so far, so by way of extending the bail bond we take it that legally what he said is has been contradicted by his own junior officers. 

By the extension of this bail bond we deem that we are indeed were formally charged and we are under arrest and as we are, we are suspects” said Chakhwantha waiting to hear what would be the next step by Police on 18th March

On her part, Kabwila expressed concern that these charges are preventing them from attending to important matters in National Assembly citing Friday as an example whereby as they were at Area 30, the House was listening to Minister of Finance presenting Midyear budget statement.

“You hear Police IG stating that there is no case and hear Area 30 Police saying we are extending your bail, so we don’t understand as who is telling the truth.” Reacted Kabwila

Kabwila said the bail extension is Government plan to keep them off from talking about the hunger in this country.

“To tell the truth what this is all about is trying to keep Malawi Congress Party quite because people know that what Malawi Congress Party has been saying that this Government has not handled the hunger that we kept on saying is looming for so long. And it is not by accident that we had to go and do this bail on the day that Minister of Finance was presenting his estimates and we missed that.” She said

The Case will cost public money 

Kabwila warned that their arrests will costs Malawians tax because at the end the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will compensate them just like it is planning to do with the ‘July 20 victim’ families. 

“DPP Government seems to be bent on misusing taxpayer’s money because they are paying people for mistakes they did and now look at what they are doing to us. This is also another self inflicted pain on the state. We don’t have resources, why should we have a Government that is so good at making mistakes and costing the public money, now they are even costing public its legislatures.” Said Kabwila who described DPP government as clueless and the charges are ridiculous 

The two MP's also said their appearance at Area 30 Police Headquarters was violation of assurance of Legislatures immunity and privileges as made in the National Assembly by Leader of House Francis Kasaila that Police will follow procedures that are established as to how they can deal with members of Parliament once found on the other side of the law.

“What is happening now is that, apart from that commitment, the IG also came in the open and said there are no charges. And today behind the back of the speaker, they call his children to Area 30 and extend the bail bonds. This is where we are saying something very fishy is being cooked up and we are saying this Government does not even care whether there would be consequences in terms of monetary compensations at the end of the day as they have already demonstrated that they are now currently paying the 20 July victims with Millions of money’s. So what will happen to us?” asked Chakhwantha 

But Kabwila said their arrests means police are getting orders from politicians and that DPP Government does not believe in independence of institutions

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."

2015/16 Budget Revised Downwards By 23.7 Billion

Gondwe being led into the Chamber

To  embark  on  the  policy of  fiscal consolidation,  in  view  of  dwindling available  resources;  Government has decided to revise downwards the 2015/16    approved  budget by  K23.7 billion  from  an  approved figure  of K929.7  billion.

This means total budget for 2015/2016 will be K906.0  billion.

Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Goodall Gondwe announced this in the National Assembly when presenting the budget review for the first half of 2015/2016 financial year.

He said in the next second half of the financial year, Government propose  to reduce  the  Recurrent  budget  by  just over  K17.1  billion and the Development Budget by sum of K5.6 billion.   

He said this  will  entail  that  for  the coming  months,  the  Treasury  will withhold  resources  that  are  intended for filling vacancies especially reducing the bloated” Civil Service.

He went on to say that in reducing Other Recurrent Transactions (ORT) the Cabinet  has  decided that  the  Treasury and  the  OPC  should  review  the various  perks including  travel,  vehicle and  fuel  entitlements  that  could  be scaled down.

He said the proposed reduction includes the development  budget through a suspension  of  a  few  projects  that  can be  removed  without  major impact  on economic  growth. 

He noted that there has  been  no significant  over  expenditures on budgetary performance vote by vote adding that the  performance  of  the budget  this  year  has  been better  than before  except  for  the  projected expenditure  on  FISP. 

On FISP he said the expenditure  relates to  the imports  of  fertilizers,  deep depreciation  of  the currency and the cost  of  procuring  fertilizers. He added that Government also shouldered other costs on the seeds for the programme since donors  declined  to  contribute  to the seed  subsidy whose  total  cost  is estimated  at  K9  billion.   

Among others on Budgetary performance, Finance and Economic Planning Minister Goodall Gondwe said total  revenue  and  grants  that  were targeted at  K386.1  billion  at  the  end of  the  first  half  of  the  2015/16 financial year  were  under-collected by K50.8  billion while Domestic  revenues that were  targeted  at  K312.4  billion fell  short  of  this  amount  by  K12.7 billion  down  to  K299.7  billion.  

He informed the House that although  a number  of  taxes performed  well,  the VAT  underperformed  considerably  by an amount  of  K5.6  billion. In  parallel, grants  performed  even  worse where the  target  of  K75.3  billion  was  under performed  by  K36.5 billion, less than half this targeted amount.

He therefore expressed need to strengthen  efforts at raising  domestic revenues  and  to  down  play  all  donor grants  in general  and  only  expect  to focus  more  on  development  loans from donors as a reliable mode of donor aid delivery.  

He however casted hope that Government is invigorating policies that aim  at  becoming  progressively,  more self-sufficient  in  budgetary matters than  has  been  the  case  so  far.

House Adopts Proposal To Change Act On ACB Appointments

The National Assembly has adopted a motion that seeks to amend section 5 (1) of the Corrupt Practices Act with resistance from Government side.

The motion which came under Private Members' Business was moved by Honorable Member for Lilongwe South West, Peter Chakhwantha proposing amendement of the section so that powers to appoint and fire Anti-Corruption Bureau’s Director General and its deputy be moved to the Parliament and not the President as it has been long practice.

Chakhwantha moved that “In order to ensure total independence and tenure of office of the Director and Deputy Director of the Anti Corruption Bureau ACB, this House resolves that an Amendment Bill to amend Section 5 (1) of the Corrupt Practices Act be drafted forthwith and presented for consideration in this House by the mover of the Motion in liaison with the relevant competent experts before the end of the Meeting specifically the Bill must amend Section 5 (1) of the cited Act to provide for the appointment of both the Director and Deputy Director by the Public Appointments Committee of Parliament based on merit and through an open recruitment process and that the Director be reporting and answerable to Parliament through the Public appointments Committee”

The motion got overwhelming support by most opposition parties and some independent legislatures whilst Government side opposed any alteration of the provision.

There was also division of votes which lead to the row call where each member of parliament was voting if they want mover of the motion to continue to windup his motion or not. The Government benches voted no while the opposition members voted yes. But at the end of this voting opposition won with 75 votes while Government side got 67 votes and there were 51 absentees.

Speaking in  an interview after the motion was adopted the mover, Honorable Peter Chakhwantha said was excited at last that the process to the independence of the Anti-Corruption Bureau has begun.

“The motion was all about trying to help the members of staff of Anti-Corruption Bureau particularly starting from the top to the bottom. We know that since 2005 this country enacted the law to establish an office which is supposed to be a watchdog over all government institutions and private individuals is issues of embezzlement. 

We know that corruption is evil, but the only way we can manage eradicate corruption is by driving the change. Having worked with ACB before, I came to their conviction that we need to start with creating room for the Director and Deputy Director then to the rest of members to feel and independent working environment. 

He said he in consultation with other opposition parties including his party, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) are ready to make the drafting of the amendment bill before the rise of this 2nd Meeting of the 46th Session of National Assembly.

“So what has happened is that the members of the August House have agranted me as a mover of the motion and those who are willing to help me to come up with an amended bill so that we are able to proceed with such an amendment to have the Director of ACB to be reporting to Parliament instead of current scenario where he reports to President as well as to be appointed by the Public Appointment Committee so that even his job security is well secured." He said 

"You have witnessed a number of times where president come in and fire Director of ACB simply because they feel he is not one of their own, so with this motion we feel we must protect ACB and make it absolutely independent.” added Chakhwantha

Kaliati Ordered Out Of Parliament Chamber

Speaker of the National Assembly has ordered Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, Patricia Kaliati to get out of chamber for calling clerk officers by their names.

Patricia Kaliati was forced to get out of Parliament chambers for calling by name one of the parliamentary clerks who sit closer to speaker.

Speaker of Malawi National Assembly, Richard Msowoya was forced to invoke Standing Order 105 to the Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare for failure to comply with first warning made by the speaker that no member shall again call the clerks.

After ordering her out of the chamber the speaker told house that Hon Kaliati continued to call one of the clerks by name against the order.

In an interview with Power 101 Kaliati said the decision by the speaker was personal and political

Kaliati is expected back in the House on Friday 

Her eviction came when the House was debating on the Private Members' Business motion from Honorable Member for Lilongwe South West.

The motion which has been passed was asking the House to allow amendment to Section 5 (1) of the Corrupt Practices Act be drafted forthwith and presented for consideration in the House by the mover of the Motion in liaison with the relevant competent experts before the end of the meeting to provide for the appointment of both the Director and Deputy Director by the Public Appointments Committee of Parliament based on merit and through an open recruitment process and that the Director be reporting and answerable to Parliament through the Public appointments Committee.

The legislature said this is in order to ensure total independence and tenure of office of the Director and Deputy Director of the Anti Corruption Bureau ACB.

House To Debate Motion On Industrial Hemp Legalization

Legislature for Ntchisi North, Boniface Kadzamira is expected to make history on Thursday 25th February, 2016 as he is expected for the first time to move a motion in the National Assembly which is asking Government to legalise and allow cultivation of Industrial Hemp.

His motion is listed among three motions appearing on Order Paper begining Wednesday under Private Members Business earmarked for Thursday business.

The Motion Reads; “That considering the enormous economic, medical and nutritional value industrial hemp has, this House resolves that Government should legalise the growing and usage of Industrial Hemp and that both at policy and legislation levels, Industrial Hemp must be recognized appropriately as an agricultural cash crop for industrial distinct from other cannabis varieties”

Speaking in an interview, Kadzamira said he wants this matter to be debated in the House; passed and the motion adopted so that Government should start to look again at laws which prohibits the cultivation of the hemp.

“I want to emphasies that Industrial Hemp is not Chamba, it is like Chibuku beer and Thobwa. So Industial Hemp cannot be smoked” he said

The cash crop, is the sister plant to marijuana but health experts say it won't get one high when one attempt to smoke it because athough hemp and marijuana are both from the cannabis species, hemp contains virtually no THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.) Its THC level is less than 1%, whereas marijuana may contain between 5 - 15%.

Industrial Hemp seeds are pressed for oil that can be used for food including salad dressings, supplements, among others and industrial lubrication, diesel fuel, paints, varnishes and many more.