The Economics Association of Zambia has welcomed the directive by Secretary to the Cabinet Dr. Roland Msiska, instructing all Permanent Secretaries to halt all festivity spend using public resources.
The Association believes that this aligns with austerity especially at a time when the Ministry of Finance has committed to prudent use of funds to maximise allocation to productive sectors of the economy.
The National Secretary Mutisunge Zulu said the Association, is however aware of positive austerity measures that have been successfully implemented so far.
He said these include, replacement of leave commutation with outright leave which has eased the financial burden of remunerating staff for excessive leave days.
Mr. Zulu has advised the state to ensure supervisors in government ministries manage staff leave inventory, so as to better address ‘presence versus productivity’ for those with immense stock of leave days.
He said other notable measures, include eradication of personal to holder vehicle allocations which have been replaced by outright sale of vehicles to top government officials which has resulted in huge cost savings on maintenance such as fuel and servicing fees.
Mr. Zulu said the Association recognises efforts, the state has made this year to curb misuse by cracking the whip on over 80 accountants in the ministries of education and finance to mention but a few.
He noted that disciplinary stances in conjunction with professional bodies such as deregistering these accountants with ZICA, also goes a long way is setting the disciplinary tone to ensure the highest tenets of accountability are maintained.
Mr. Zulu has since advised government to target a zero misuse, misapplication and misappropriation environment.
He said in so doing, the public financial management system will earn the requisite confidence and will set the tone for fiscal discipline.
Mr. Zulu added that the Association lauds the launch of the revised Audit Committee Handbook that should aid zero audit queries.
He said successful implementation of austerity measures will breed confidence in the public finance management framework which will in turn allay some of the fears that investors, multilateral partners may have around budget and fiscal credibility.
Mr. Zulu added that prudent financial management of public resources aligns with the Seventh National Development Plan, the medium-term expenditure framework and ultimately the vision 2030.
How about Purchase of Presidential jet – is failure implementation of austerity measures.
PF is so broke, can’t even celebrate Christmas.
Ba Msiska did it just occur to you that these were very bad ideas to begin with or is it because now mwandyela enough that you have decided to stop, you have looked the other way brother including on repayment of money that was paid to ministers when they should not have been. I hope you are innocent in all of this because you know the Lord and your calling is different than those that may not know the Lord. Please use your position to lift the name of the Lord, to do justly and to walk humbly before the Lord. Speak for the down trodden and not just the powerful
Celebrating xmas using public resources has always been disallowed . Does the Minister of Finance even mention any budget for Christmas? Tell us something that we do not know
This guy is useless he is not Mutati …without political will you are not going anywhere!!