CDF DISBURSED AMID EMPTY COFFERS
Dear Editor, HONOURABLE
Gary Nkombo, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development this week disbursed the constituency development fund (CDF) despite the fact that Zambia had empty national coffers. The disbursed constituency development fund amounted to K249.6 million for the 156 constituencies in the country. In simple arithmetic, each constituency received K1.6 million.
The CDF is meant for spearheading developmental projects in the constituencies by the Members of Parliament (MPs) with the assistance of the civic leaders, the councillors. The developmental projects have to be done during the five year tenure of office of the lawmakers in the constituencies.
What is certain is that each constituency has its own pressing needs according to the needs of the people. This implies that the lawmakers should not impose development on the electorate.
The disbursement of the constituency development fund especially before the presentation of the national budget is good but not good enough. This is because people are wondering where the United Party for National Development (UPND) government got the money for CDF amid the empty national coffers. President Hakainde Hichilema just after being sworn in as the seventh republican President during an interview with an international media disclosed that the UPND government inherited the empty national coffers from the former ruling Patriotic Front (PF) party. President Hichilema’s sentiments on empty coffers was rebuffed by Dr. Bwalya Ng’andu, the former Minister of Finance who disclosed that the Patriotic Front government left US$2.8 billion in the reserve.
However, President Hichilema’s sentiments on empty coffers was out of context because the head of State should have consulted widely before issuing a statement on such a sensitive matter which is under the scrutiny of the donor community. President Hichilema is no longer the leader of the opposition political party but the republican President. What the head of state says is under scrutiny by everyone.
The point worth noting is that Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has been collecting revenue exceeding its target on behalf of the government year in and year out. If this is not enough, the country through the National Road
Fund Agency /(NRFA) collects the substantial toll fees which go to the national treasury.
Given the above scenario, there is no way the country can have empty coffers. Truth be told and to the contrary, the national coffers are not empty. If the national coffers were empty, it wouldn’t be possible to disburse the CDF.
Moving forward; Zambians have great expectations from the new dawn administration. The UPND government should deliver development in various sectors of the economy let alone provision of free education from grade one to tertiary level as premised in the party’s campaign prior to the August 12 general election.
ELEMIYA PHIRI Lusaka.
Dear Editor,
US Dollar has at the moment only one key prominent source of supply and this is the bank of Zambia, this is mainly due to the weak activities or position emanating from the export sides, so right now we have a huge demand for US Dollars coming from importers, who are trying to clear some goods with ZRA while at the same time others are buying goodies meant for Christmas, and we have an end of year expenses dishing out as well particularly from companies / NGO’s to finish off their 2021 budgets so that they avoid less funding for next financial year of 2022.
So in short, October each year since Zambia is an import-driven country, the US dollar has a high level of engagements on the sides of its demand in order to meet up import requirements which is currently coming right now, and in few weeks from now, as this entirely runs up to December.
As long as we keep importing commodities without pushing for industrialization agenda, this trend will never stop if anything am even worried on the inflation development, as Kwacha keeps on depreciating presently, just today its lost something about 10 ngwee. One other key issue is how the executive leadership within the functions of government are handling the issue of national debts and each time they announce anything about this debt issue, the market keeps on reacting, so I suggest this should also be done in a systematic model to avoid shocks.
So, it is anticipated that this month of October has purchasing officers in various agents of the economy making some relatively reasonable transactions partly for festival goodies as earlier indicated particularly with the retail sector playing a high card on this trend together with others, and we will definitely expect the manager’s purchase index likely to shoot up in terms of percentage in value terms.
Though, the immediate impact is more likely to be on inflation as a first case, and secondly the exchange rate has shown little survival points but there are possibilities of having it trade in range bound if sufficient support comes from copper tax receipts around December and part of January 2022, though the biggest worry is right in February and March due to seasonal demands for food stuff.
KELVIN CHISANGA