Friday, March 29, 2024

K17 billion spent on By Elections so far against a 2013 budget provision of K5 billion-Miles Sampa

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Commerce, Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Miles Sampa
Commerce, Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Miles Sampa

THE Government has so far spent K17 billion on by-elections, Commerce, Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Miles Sampa has said and the funding was coming from the contingency line in the 2013 national budget, after the budgeted K5 billion was exhausted.

Speaking during the Lusaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry breakfast meeting in Lusaka yesterday, Mr Sampa said K5 billion was budgeted for in the 2013 budget for by-elections which had since be exhausted.

“So in the last year’s budget I can confirm we put in K5 billion and evidently it has been exhausted but there is no budget overrun there, ” he said, adding that it was not true that the by-elections were being financed outside the budget, but within the 2013 national budget using the contingency line.

“I will tell you when you make a budget in your companies you put in what you call contingencies for any eventualities since we could not predict how many by-elections will be there. We put K5 billion and we have a line in the budget called contingency where we had put K50 billion for any unforeseen circumstances,” Mr Sampa said.

He said the by-elections were being financed under the contingency line in the budget and that there was no money being spent off the budget.

[pullquote]“I will tell you when you make a budget in your companies you put in what you call contingencies for any eventualities since we could not predict how many by-elections will be there. We put K5 billion and we have a line in the budget called contingency where we had put K50 billion for any unforeseen circumstances,” Mr Sampa said.
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He was reacting to questions from journalists that Government was spending huge sums of money on unnecessary by-elections.

He said the holding of by-elections was a constitutional requirement adding that if elections were not held within the stipulated time the Government would be blamed for breaking the constitution.

“It is a constitutional requirement that if a Member of Parliament (MP) dies or an MP resigns elections should be held within 90 days or 60 days. If elections are not held we will be blamed for breaking the constitution and we don’t want to do that.

“It is a constitutional requirement but as far as the budget goes by-elections are budgeted for,” he said.

He said there was K33 billion left from the contingency line in the budget and that was where the by elections would be financed from.

“We planned ahead and everything is within the budget so the idea that we are operating outside the budget is not true,” Mr Sampa said.

89 COMMENTS

  1. Bufi.Tata mulebepa Bufi.GOD WILL NOT LET U FREE IN WORSTING OUR MONEY ON THESE UNNECESSARY BY ELECTIONS.THAT K50BILLION CAN BUILD FIFTY CLINICS AND YET YOU MANUFACTURE BY ELECTIONS AND ACCUSE THE LAW.HIDE IN THE LAW GOD KNOWS YOUR EVIL HEARTS.IT WILL BE PLAIN SOON.For how long shall you hide.God is seeing everything well well.

    • No one cares about Clinics, why have children if you can not look after them?

      The trouble with you Africans is that you have one too many children with no strategic reasoning on how you ought to look after them.
      God helps those who help themselves

      The Clinics are enough, so are University Schools, they made need improvements but stop feeding us with needing more of these institutions
      Indeed the population shall always grow but those people in need of these Hospitals etc should first be educated on these cons of fornicating without due care of the future
      By the way I dont condone how much has been spent on these elections.
      Thanks

    • ,@ fake mushota
      please read your comment again,, Not anywhere near PhD!!…. was it written in bemba english or english bemba?
      or maybe the reasoning was bemba and the writting was in chizungu,,,,

      You can take a monkey out of a banana field in africa and take it to UK or bulaya.. but you can never take bananas out that monkey`s head

    • WEWA BUFI NIWEBO PANTU TAWABELENGELE NA BUDGET. DON’T JUST COMMENT FUULISHLY. REFER TO FACTS- GO BACK AND READ THE BUDGET AND CALL THEM LIARS THEREAFTER.

    • Miles Sampa is clearly cheating or rather telling BUFI,BOZA,KUBEJA.Since September 2011,Zambia has held close to 10 by-elections.According to ECZ expenditure profile for each by-election,they spend on average K5.5b a piece.What this means is that for eight by-elections so far conducted,at least K44b has been spent AND NOT THE K17b stated by Miles.If you take into account what Guy Scott and Michael Sata spend to campaign during these same elections,then you have a figure much more than the K44b.is this not what Zambians are saying that there is a budget OVER RUN??

    • I don’t know why people want to kill Sampa.A Budget is a plan and then there is the actual spending.Dullness on this site is appalling.

    • BYE ELECTION SAGA: The more Miles Sampa tries to Explain,the more he exposes his Government.
      can we all just count the number of bye elections we have had since 2011? i cant remember them all.
      1. Mufumbwe
      2. Livingstone x2
      3. Mpongwe
      4. Feira
      5. Kapiri
      6. Chongwe
      7. Nakonde
      8. Magoye
      9.Lukulu west

      SO in total we can say we have had 10 bye elections,those that i can remember. And if the minimum spent according to ECZ on these bye elections is K5 billion,then this is what we have
      10 bye elections x k 5 billion each(assuming minimum cost for each) = k 50 Billion.
      Amount budgeted for bye elections according to sampa = K5 Billion
      Amount budgeted for contingencies according to Sampa = K50 Billion.
      this then means that K50 billion has…

    • Now remeber i have only used the minimum figure for bye election costs when in actual fact in some places it is even more. we are told feira will gobble about K7.7 billion. It means therefore that the two coming bye elections, Solwezi East and Mulobezi, which am aware of will somewhat dip there hands into money unbudgeted for by the governemtn. to me it is very funny that miles sampa can still argue that all the bye elections are well planned and budgeted for when we all know that they have overshot the budget with these bye elections. In the contingency fund he talked of today is not even limited only to bye elections but other things that might come up.

    • @Robin,after reading what the Hitman has adequately analyzed, from my side of view I think you seem to be the dullest blogger on this fora. As for you Peter, your reasoning beats me. Honestly, how do you deceive yourself to such an extent? You know that the ‘democractic processes’ are being abused. You know and don’t make us look like we are dull. We see through what the Pf and the useless defecting Mps are doing. That my friend is not democracy…it is stupidity.

  2. K17b against a budgetted k5 billion all because Sata’s political interests come before the interests of 13m poor souls yearning for the basics of life.

    • is miles sampa telling us that his PF government is spending money which it hasnt got?,,,, Zambia is being lead by a mentally blind person!!!

    • ECZ reported, Lukulu and Kapiri by-elections cost Kr11m and that Feira will cost an additional Kr7.7m. These 3 by-elections will in total cost our treasury Kr18.7m yet only Kr 4m was the total budget for by-election in the 2013 budget.

  3. Enka

    You are deliberately running away from the truth. The truth is that it is the opposition that is expelling its MPs all because of their little egos

    Government has not so far expelled any MP. For instance, Given Lubinda committed some expeleable crimes against the PF, and instead of the party expelling him, they sought to displine him within the party, hereby avoiding a by-election

    If Opposition parties can adopt the same style of leadership, by elections will be a thing of the past and will only be held when an incumbent MP passes on, or an MPs election has been unulled

    CNP

    • True that, true that, true that!!!

      There is a lot of HYPOCRYCE going on in the Opposition. It really takes narcissistic individuals not to accept their fair of the blame!

    • You are so useless and am sure you are a useful *****,think of the following-Masumba,Namulambe,Taima,Chipata central,Feira,Now the seat that was for Maxwell Mwale,Mulobezi,Kapiri …….Please dont expose your foolishness because non of these MPs or MPs from these constituency were expelled by the opposition.Take your idiocy very far away from the suffering Zambian people.

    • Dull chaps,why are you trying to ignore the true facts about the wastage of money on bye elections.It is a well known fact that PF is on a campaign to poach the opposition MPs and that has been admitted by one geriatic guy scott.
      Such dullness of some zambians beats my mind really

  4. They told us average expenditure for one by-election is KR6m. But how on Earth could they budget KR5m below one by-election? It is sad for the Govt to use contingency funds for unprofitable ventures like by-elections which are aimed at making one MP happy and open his pocket for more money.

  5. It’s either this guy has confused me or he is just telling lies known currently as BUFI. Here are my questions and I hope paid blogging PF cadres can answer me.

    1) This figure is low. ECZ said they don’t spend less than K5bn per by election and last two cost K11bn, Feira will cost K7.7 bn, that’s over this figure already. How about the other by elections?

    2) Is this contingency line for by elections or the whole budget? If it is for by elections, why is the contingency figure 10 times the actual budget line? Is this how budgets are run?

    3) If the contingency line is for the whole budget, why is it that only by elections are using this line ( K50bn-K17bn = K33bn left). We have had things like chibombo accidents, and now Prof Chriwa

    This leaves more questions than answers,…

    • My thoughts as well. It seems all the contingency is going towards by elections. But you missed a bit from 17bn we remove the 5bn budgeted this leaves us with 12bn remove from 50 bn we have 37bn. Feira needs 7.7bn we have four others lined up and now this Mulobezi thing. Assume all these takes 20 bn plus the 7.7bn we have 27.7 from 37bn we are remaining with less than 10bn. Then Sinazongwe is waitng. How about other things, How much have they budgeted for the Chikopa tibunal and how much has been spent so far? Ws the upcoming salary increament budgeted for. Kaya

    • can we all just count the number of bye elections we have had since 2011? i cant remember them all.
      1. Mufumbwe
      2. Livingstone x2
      3. Mpongwe
      4. Feira
      5. Kapiri
      6. Chongwe
      7. Nakonde
      8. Magoye
      9.Lukulu west

      SO in total we can say we have had 10 bye elections,those that i can remember. And if the minimum spent according to ECZ on these bye elections is K5 billion,then this is what we have
      10 bye elections x k 5 billion each(assuming minimum cost for each) = k 50 Billion.
      Amount budgeted for bye elections according to sampa = K5 Billion
      Amount budgeted for contingencies according to Sampa = K50 Billion.
      this then means that K50 billion has already been spent. which means one of the looming bye elections is not budgeted for.Solwezi…

    • Ba Bootlicker, he has not confused you, Miles is actually the one who is confused. Relax my man. The minister has no clue about what he was talking about. I am sure he has no respect for the people he was addressing otherwise he wouldn’t have uttered such words. Perhaps he thought he was addressing children… Typical of his uncle in state house

    • Don’t crack your head up Chief Bootlicker, in a few hours another pf Minister will come and correct this assertion. Surely, Sampa is speaking from without and it will probably be Dotty Scotty to clear him up.

    • I thought we are talking about 2013 budget and the by-elections that have occurred since. I am pretty sure that’s what Mr. Sampa and everybody else is talking about. And NOT going all the way back to 2011. So your Math is way off!

    • A wise judge once said…If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything but the truth however if you lie! your sometimes forget what you said to cover up…Mr Sampa for the sake of of your integrity stop your lies…You maths don’t seem to add up

  6. KK managed to fool Zambians for 27 years because he presided over a country where the majority of the population was illiterate. The PF is finding it hard to govern this country because the majority of the population is enlightened and cannot easily be fooled by “clever talk.” Thus, Miles Sampa’s explanation raises more questions than answers. Even a kid at a kindergarten can easily discern that there is no truth in what he is saying.

  7. Miles Sampa! Miles Sampa, Miles Sampa!

    How many times did I call you?

    Go back to school.

    There is no where in planning where the contingency budget is several fold the budgeted amount. Contingencies are always a small fraction of the projection.

    Muletusebanya gyz.

  8. This is not adding up.Ecz told us how much it costs them to host one by election.The figure Miles is giving cant even host one by election.As usual.Pf style.Donci kubeba,bufi,boza.

  9. Why should you blame it on PF?Its not the PF MPS who are resigning rather its the other way round.Please blame it on the constitution and bad governance in the opposition politcal parties.Be realistic in your comments ba mambala.

    • Ba DR.”Whether dimwe Nghanga witch finder” or not. The issue is the budget where you budget 5 million and you allow another 50 million and others. The max you go is 10% which only .05 million.
      Those who resign are inticed by PF party,so learn to tell the truth. I dont how many press statement have been made this week. God forbid lol

  10. People in Brazil are demonstrating over these same issues of money mismanagement by government of Brazil, failure to take care of middle class, corruption in government and over expenditure. Why cant we Zambians Do the same? are we too docile such we cant show our government that we not happy about what is happening in our country? Friends PF is not here for the good of the people, Sata must go now, we cant afford 3 years more of this mismanagement of funds and misuse of power. spending K17 billion on by elections when we have 3 quarters of the population living less a dollar per day, seriously where are we going?

    • Yes. I have Brazilians friends here. They also demonstrating because of Govt failure to finish building Stadium for world football matches and Olympics.
      Zambians, you need to start petitions, otherwise, when you demonstrate you will be shoot dead by either the police or military personnel (GBM-group)

    • mwiponta Mukabwela@13, You made valid points and i agree with most of them but i strongly disagree with the idea that we can not wait for 3 years to replace the current leadership. Remember to be on the right side of the law all the time no matter the circumstance.

  11. Miles meant to say they budgeted for 50 billion and the contingency budget fund was 5billion! Otherwise bufi and he does not know what he is talking about! We are in for big trouble.

  12. SAD situation indeed Pa zED. Meanwhile The Post, Times and the like are busy fighting HH who is not in government instead of sensitizing people about dangers of budget OVERRUN LOOMING… SHAME

  13. Its either Miles Sampa don’t know what he is talking about or he is trying to confuse the nation,both ways its a very sad situation for mother Zambia.

  14. All thie blame for such by-elections should go to the opposition or the candidate resigning.What do you want the PF government to do if someone resigns?This is not a PF problem…its within the constitution.Let us blame those chaps who like jumping from one party to another.Ba muselelala kwakaba!!

    • Even your name will tell who you are and what your thoughts are. You can do better on phonication than bring trash to the public. If your wife tells you that she has found a boyfriend who she goes to bed with and insist that you will still remain her husband will you accept to keep her and remain her husband?

  15. Just 2 days ago Keith said there is no budjet overun, today Miles gives us a diffrent picture which is not even true. The rummer on ground is that the PF Gorvement have spent more than K 50 bn on by elections, indeed there is a budjet over run in the country. If he talks about contingence line, were is the funding for the new districts coming from? then its already spent too.

  16. I think Sampa failed to qualify his statement by sayin by election.What he should have said is ,”induced and unnecessary by election.”This is the many which clueless Kabova Chishimba Kambwili said was not alot of money.

  17. What is amazing about this whole issue of BUDGETING is that it goes through Parliament whose responsibility, among others, is to keep tabs on what the Execute proposes. In my humble opinion, there is enough blame to go around on this issue!

    As for by-elections, I think opposition parties are simply trying to find a scapegoat for their contribution to the problem. They should just man-up and own their fair share of causing by-elections. By-elections being a Constitutional matter, there is nothing the govt can do about it but follow what the Constitution says.

    By the way, I think the biggest culprit for causing overall budget over-runs are consumption subsidies and not by-elections. And govt has done well to discontinue them. Amazingly, the Opposition hate this too!

    • I AGREE BRO THE OPPOSITION ARE JUST RUNNING AWAY FROM THEIR OEN FAILURE
      ANYWAY THE MORE THEY REMAIN THIS WAY THE MORE PF RULES.

    • The government can stop rewarding those that resign from opposition parties with cabinet appointments and forgiveness of any existing criminal charges, and the resignations will stop. Right now, the ruling party is inducing the resignations by providing rewards (or incentives) for opposition MPs to resign and join the ruling party.

  18. After all is said and done, by all means, this is the worst government that has ever been voted into power. Zambia has unfortunately gone a number of steps back since Mwanawasa died. It all went downhill when Rupiah came in and now we are about to hit rock bottom. This is a good lesson that we as Zambians have learnt. Just because someone can speak very loud doesnt make them a good leader, its what is in the head that counts. As they say, empty tins make a lot of noise, AND, Sata made a lot of noise during campaigns, how full that head is for you and I to come up with the answer. 2 years in and still hasn’t addressed the nation on economic issues, only time you hear our president speak is when he is campaigning for some MP. Settlers were shot dead a few days ago, still no comment not…

  19. So why not subsidize the food if you have all those monies in your so called contingency line? i thought subsidies only costed the country K3.2bn

  20. The boy is lying! The 50 Billion is the contigency for the whole budget, not for by-elections alone. Mufumbwe, Livingstone (twice), Lukulu west, Kapiri mposhi and Feira have gobbled a combined 38 Billion kwacha. The 50 Billion is supposed to cater for everything else including new districts, civil servants pay rise, more deputy ministers, draft constitution, etc.

  21. Exactly the point! we have now been vindicated for voicing our concerns that this government has ground the wheels of the economy to an eventual halt. We can’t go on this one!!

  22. Freedom of assembly is a constitutional right and matter. How come the PF govt does not vigorously apply it even when it doesn’t even call for contingency lines to be exhausted?

  23. These ministers are simply amazing. If you think you have heard all the lunatic explanations from Govt on this subject, wait till the Chief Spokesperson Sakeni comes up with his version. Its now like a contest of lunatics, and some have now reached legendary status.

    • I agree with you. This govt is a bunch of *****s including those that support them. They are not even ashamed. This is a sign of lunacy.

  24. K17 billion? Where has this been spent? Very difficult to agree. The by-elections have occurred in Zambia and I expect this money has been spent within the country. However this much if it has really been spent in the country, I also expect it to show improvements in the economic indicators of Zambia. People’s lives are supposed to be improving.

    Someone to analysis where exactly has this money been spent for by-elections.

  25. MMD Chief Bootlicker: I agree with you. The problem with PF they think people forget all what has been said and proclaimed. You assembled pieces of fact and your argument is systematic no doubt.
    I think the Zambians are being taken for granted.
    The budget is overrun for sure, no doubt about it. Removal of subsidy is just to fund raise and make up for the over expenditure.
    Peace,peace and peace, you think peace will bring food on the table?? BUFI mubepele fye

  26. Bufi, wenye, ulabecha….. Kapiri was K12.7billion while Feira is budgetted at K7.7billion. How many other by-elections have we had this year? Livingstone, Mpongwe, +++++++++ Miles you are smart don’t accept to be played

  27. Is the deputy minister telling us that the contingency was only meant for by elections?? If so, the bye elections are deliberate made!!
    For Mushota, don’t try to portray your stupid arrogance on issues you do not understand.

  28. Blame shud go to oposition who re busy expeling MPs hence govt acting in line with constitution has the mandate to ensure bye elections re held withn 60 to 90 days.Workng with govt shud not amount to being expeled.Why coz workng fr govt amounts to piopo mandate.But oposition is busy expeling its membrs.A recipe aganist holdng bye elections is not expeling MPs workng with govt & its pipo.PF has nevr expelled any of its membrs.Dont force artificial revolutions evn if u conive with CSOs & mini bus drivers.Dont itch now bola hanzi 2016 is yet comng HH baka ku sepa! yah

  29. By expelling their MPs the opposition leave the country with no option but to have by elections.
    MPs also have the right to leave the “nonsense” in some political paties that want to hold them regional captives.
    Solution: opposition parties should mature, change the law on holding by elections.

  30. Opposition political parties cause by elections by expelling their Mps.
    2ndly these parties force others to resign by their undemocratic tendencies yet others still want to hold their MPs as regional captives.

    and they want to blame it on the PF.

  31. @We planned ahead….Indeed they did. From the onset they were intent on destablising other members of parliament poaching them and hence causing stupid by elections. The problem here is that our politicians dont have any principles they are like prostitutes. What is the probability of a Democrat in the house of representatives defecting to the republican side of the house??? We do have ideologies pa zed they are just suttle. Differences between PF and MMD exist. Principled politicians choose what they believe in and stick to it not these prostitutes.

  32. In short these elections are much more important than all the poor Zambians living below a Dollar per day? They are much more worthy than the life robbed off those two poor human beings killed by your ZNS thugs the other day? Really?!!! Gosh i get sick to my stomach i feel like shaking my head to wake me up so this nightmare our people are going through can end! Really Miles? you feel better to even show these numbers to us? My word am so angry, angry at all of you politicians including opposition, few months i was in total favour of the government, after those killings? am so disgusted, if i could read through my blogs of way back, i would pinch myself so hard, thats how i feel about you so called leaders, you dont care at all as long as you and yours are smearing butter on your bread!

  33. This is confusing because:

    The Electoral Commission of Zambia says the cost of holding parliamentary bye elections varies depending on the location and the size of the constituency.

    ECZ Director Priscilla Isaacs said the Commission does not spend anything less than K 5 billion in running a bye election.

    Ms. Isaacs said the recent Lukulu West and Kapiri constituency bye elections cost the Commission a whopping K 11 billion.

    She said June 20 Feira bye election will gobble another whopping K 7.7 billion.

    “For June 20, we are also doing eleven ward bye elections and the cost is around K 7.7 billion unrebased, the cost varies per constituency but we don’t spend anything less than K 5 billion,” she said.

    Mrs. Isaacs was speaking in Lusaka when the ECZ hosted a media luncheon…

  34. This is a very big eye opener for you voters, This country is being run into the ground by a bunch of bembas who have absolutely no idea about running a country. Its as though they are playing snakes and ladders and trying to to constantly win. These by elections have been completely unnecessary, just a stupid reminder to themselves that they are in power. As for all those who have defected to join this monkey government, enjoy the next three years because come 2016, no one will want to employ a traitor!!

  35. surely what miles is saying compared to other GRZ sources is not adding up.we are heading towards very difficult times under pf. the know how is not there in a number of things, just get ready for total doom.

  36. The mass of worms he has inside his head (instead of brains) told him he could fool the populace that easily………

  37. The problem with always trying to sound clever is that you end up exposing your ignorance. Let MOF the people custodians of the budget speak about the numbers. The other day he was talking about how introduction of letters of credit will ensure that foreign companies pay local taxes. What he missed is that corporate tax is not calculated on the basis of a company’s bank balances but on what the profit and loss statement shows. Having positive bank balances is not necessarily a sign that a company is making profits. They may not just be paying their bills.

  38. This man needs to offer an apology for telling lies or otherwise he must resign forthwith.

  39. I think Sampa failed to qualify his statement by saying by election.What he should have said is ,”induced and unnecessary by elections.”This is the money which clueless Kabova Chishimba Kambwili said was not alot of money.

  40. L/STONE X2
    LUKULU WEST
    KAPIRI
    MKUSHI NORTH
    CHIPATA CENTRAL
    KAFULAFUTA
    MPONGWE
    CHONGWE
    SINAZONGWE
    FEIRA
    SOLWEZI CENTRAL
    MUFUMBWE
    MULOBEZI
    NAKONDE
    ITEZI TEZI
    THOSE TWO OTHERS IN EASTERN PROVINCE I CANT REMEMBER THE NAMES.

    WITHIN TWO YEARS WILL HAVE 18 BY ELECTIONS,UNPRECEDENTED HAPPENING AND WASTE OF PUBLIC RESOURCES

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