‘Spend wisely’ Gwengwe tells MDAs as K3.7trillion budget passes

Finance Minister Sosten Gwengwe has called on government Ministries, Departments and Agencies to exercise caution on expenditures, as the 2023-2024 National budget has passed.

Pegged at K3.7 trillion, the 2023/2024 national budget was passed following the scrutiny of various allocation votes on Thursday by members of parliament.

The passing of the budget means that the Minister of Finance has been authorised to start spending from the government purse from tomorrow 1st of April, commencing the government financial year.

He has since described the national blue print as the most difficult one which will need more than zeal to implement.

“This is one of the most difficult budgets to put together because after the planning had already been done cyclone Freddy hit, and we had to go back to the drawing table to reprioritizes and recast the budgets and that has not been an easy task,2 Gwengwe said.

One of the challenges that has often is over expenditure emanating from mismanagement in MDAs.

According to Gwengwe, most MDA’s have had significant cuts in the restructured budget, as the government has prioritised maintenance of roads which were destroyed by Cyclone Freddy.

“There has been a lot of resources channeled towards maintenance, which means other areas will have to suffer the ORT’s of most MDAs will have to come down a bit, so what I can ask the MDAs to adjust their behavior because if they just adjust the budget line they will end up over blowing their budget so this time around we are going to be serious,” Gwengwe stressed.

Gwengwe has highlighted that the government through his Ministry will introduce a system of monitoring spending by MDAs.

Commenting on the same, chairperson for the parliamentary committee on budget and finance Gladys Ganda has concurred with Gwengwe on cost cutting measures.

Ganda calls for the speedy presentation of the Disaster Risk Management Bill to parliament, which she believes is key in dealing with post disaster activities.

“That is a bill that has most safeguards to make sure that resources are protected and also to come with better initiatives in terms of post cyclone recovery,” Ganda said.