Wasteful spending is danger to development
THE goals of the Seventh National Development Plan (7NDP) may not be realized if wasteful spending continued as revealed in the Auditor General’s report financial ended 2016, Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection media information officer Tendai Posiana has said.
Ms Posiana said with the current national poverty levels at 54.4 percent and rural poverty levels at 76.6 percent, and also the high cost of living; Zambia could not afford to continue on this path of imprudent use of public resources.
She said Zambia had many developmental challenges to continue on the path of wasteful use of public resources, by some civil servants.
She said it was disappointing that the funds were wasteful, when the government had struggled to balance its incomes with expenditure partly due to reduced economic growth,
“In the last few years, government has struggled to balance its incomes with expenditure partly due to reduced economic growth which has been caused by reduced copper prices on the international market and low electricity supply among others. This has resulted in government recording huge budget deficits of over 6 percent of Gross Domestic Product per annum way above the projected annual deficit of 3 percent of Gross Domestic Product,” she said.
She said the JCTR therefore demanded that the AntiCorruption Commission prosecutes all erring officers cited in the report for abusing public resources, noting the government should implement all recommendation in the audit report without fail.
She said therefore, JCTR was concerned with the current public financial mismanagement in Zambia that kept getting worse every year without corrective measures, saying there was also an urgent need for the revision of the Public Finance Act to strengthen punitive measures so as to ensure adherence to laid down financial regulations.
Ms Posiana said while the economy had shown signs of recovery with projected growth, government fiscal space was still under serious strain, adding it was it was disappointing that there still some individuals that were mismanaging public funding.
“Now that we are on a route to economic recovery, stringent public financial management policies should be instituted in our country to ensure that funds are used for the intended purpose in order to uplift lives of the poor,” she said.
The office of the auditor general, released a report on the Accounts of the Republic for the financial year ending 31st December 2016 revealing the total of K 538 million that was under query in the financial year ending 2016.
Ms Posiana said it was without doubt that those with the responsibility of managing public funds have terribly failed the Zambians and quick measures need to be put in place to avoid this wastefulness.