‘Extend austerity measures to Zambian missions’

LET’S expand our austerity measures to missions abroad by getting rid of a bloated workforce straining our treasury so that we can redirect and commit some of the money to paying some of our debts, Enock Tonga has suggested.

Speaking to the Daily Nation yesterday, Mr. Tonga, who is 3RD Liberation Movement (3RD LM) president, said the country was spending huge sums of money to finance missions abroad with a bloated workface consisting of individuals who played no part in enhancing cooperation with other countries. He said ordinary Zambians were feeling the pinch from increased taxation to raise funds for Government operations yet paying a blind eye to unproductive expenditures which were gobbling a lot of money hence the need for a rethink.

“In line with austerity measures which President Edgar Lungu and his Government announced and to help the Republic of Zambia save unnecessary costs, we must also deal with missions abroad. “We must take a bold step to dismantle the said slavish US $10.23 billion external debt and provide quality education, health services and pay our public workers on time to enhance efficiency in public service delivery,” Mr. Tonga said. He further called for a complete closure of missions outside Africa which were not serving any purpose to the development of the country, saying the country could not afford to keep people living lavish lifestyles abroad for doing nothing. He said most of the foreign missions were closed during MMD under Frederick Chiluba’s reign but were later reopened during Levy Mwanawasa’s administration and embraced by the current administration despite being white elephants.

“On an average of five member staff per foreign mission, as a nation that has hit a snag in as far as debt is dictating now, we cannot afford to continue spending not less than US $15,000 thousand per staff in foreign mission per month.

“This simply means that as a country we are spending at least US $75,000 thousand per month for nothing but on pleasure resorts costs as allowances on an average of a five member mission staff - excluding other miscellaneous expense which Government is aware of,” he said.

He called for the closureof foreign missions in Canada, Brazil, France, Turkey, Russia and Italy, among others, saying there was nothing Government was benefiting from these places as they were simply pleasure resort destinations.