Cabinet trimming inevitable -Kalumba
TRIMMING the Cabinet is inevitable to have key ministries that are critical to the country’s development, former Minister of Finance Katele Kalumba has said.
Dr Kalumba said it was important the government should prioritise key ministries that were critical to the country’s economic development. He was reacting to calls by former Minister of Finance Felix Mutati for government to trim the Cabinet. He said countries like United Kingdom had bigger population but had smaller Cabinet. And Dr Kalumba supported the call, saying that it was prudent the government concentrated on critical ministries. He said the country was facing challenges, therefore, having a big Cabinet would continue to be a burden. Dr Kalumba said, “With the current situation it’s important that the Cabinet conformed to what the country can provide instead of having too many positions.” He said Government must stick to a Cabinet that was critical to development, stating that this would help in developing the country. Dr Kalumba said Government must ensure that the Cabinet was trimmed and maintain ministries which had major responsibility to the development of the country. “If it is possible the government may join some ministries and also improve technical capacities to institutions. We just need to have ministries that were critical to development concerns. Ministries like Health, Infrastructure, Tourism, Education, Mines, Energy, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Livestock and Agriculture are very key. “These are created due to public pressure in terms of development, so others can be joined so that we don’t have a big Cabinet,” he said.