Special Assistant to the President for Press and Public Relations Anthony Bwalya has said that there is no way the Patriotic Front (PF) officials can admit that the Treasury is empty when they failed to pay retirees, Contractors, and suppliers of materials when they were in government
Mr. Bwalya told ZNBC that government is in the process of eradicating dishonesty and lack of transparency in the management of public resources.
Mr. Bwalya said that President Hakainde Hichilema’s administration has continued discovering many financial anomalies since assuming office, and assures Zambians that this will be fixed once and for all.
Mr. Bwalya said that lack of financial discipline made Zambians remove the PF Government as the cost of living kept rising.
Mr. Bwalya also said the continued appreciation of the Kwacha is an indication that the UPND Government is on the right trajectory of awakening the economy which was on the verge of collapsing.
During the week officials from PF and oppositions parties have been challenging assertions that the new Government has inherited empty coffers following the president’s interview with the BBC.
Former Minister of Water Development Sanitation and Environmental Protection, Hon Raphael Nakachinda dismissed claims by President Hakainde Hichilema that he found empty coffers.
Hon Nakachinda said the claims by the President were unfounded and cannot be substantiated when the former ruling party was leaving office the International reserves were close to US$3 billion.
The former minister said the continued claims by Mr Hichilema clearly show that he does not have any plan to govern the country.
“He used all that time to bash at President Edgar Lungu and Patriotic Front, suggesting that they have stolen money and left empty coffers, lamenting that it is a new dawn and he has nowhere to start from.
“Basically this means that he didn’t have a plan for this country,”Hon Nakachinda said.
Hon Nakachinda said President Hichilema is trying to create excuses for him not to fulfill his promises to give free education from pre-school to university level.
You can also eat the empty coffers
You simply have failed to come up with solutions after living in the realm of political fantasy for 20 years. THE EARLIER YOU ADMIT THE BETTER FOR ALL OF US.
This is tantamount to “FAILURE TO THRIVE”.
You boasted of HH being a business mogul who will negotiate his way up to prosperity with an 18 million people load on his shoulders.
Let boy show us his brain power.
The poor youths are very anxious waiting for what you promised.
This cowardice trait won’t save your face in 2026.
DAY11
The sooner this debate comes to an end, the better for us all.
I am getting tired of this story.
Yous it’s empty, they say it wasn’t empty.
Okay upnd, what did want to find in the coffers?
Get to work mwe!
Kwacha is appreciating but when u go to banks and money exchanges they don’t have dollars. It was never like this under PF even when dollar was 23.
This shows how artificial the current appreciation is.
Chimbwi no plan hahahaha they have already failed and are crying like babies. They thought running the country is like running a farm full of cows
I don’t understand why the dead PF want to force things. We all saw how retirees and contractors went unpaid under Dead PF. Why can’t they just admit that they failed the Zambian people. I am scared this debate might just act as a catalyst for some high PF officials to face jail time.
These two scruffy hairy orangutans can’t even get a hair cut. Embarrassing Zambians.
Hh based his elections on criticising pf and had no plans on how to run this country. He will continue using these excuses to avoid accountability for his failures. The f00I thought he was Jesus when he was promising manna on earth
If the Treasury was full( had some funds) why then did PF fail to pay council workers?
For the record, TREASURY is different from RESERVES! And the two have different functions so don’t interchange them to suit your arguments please!
This could be true looking at how pf went about with a lavish style of doing things.
The MMD left without paying retirees or local suppliers. They almost sold off Zanaco to raise money.
Do you remember why the two Eurobonds were secured by Sata? It was because the country was cashless then.
KCM employees were not paid until Lungu did it recently. We are tired of hearing about depleted state accounts.
UPND wants to have a very good reason to borrow from IMF. That’s why they insist on our insolvency.
PF are behaving like seriously crazy zombies. If the treasury is health what was the reason why you failed to provide medicines in hospitals, fail to remit loan repayments from civil servants, fail to pay interests in the Eurobond loan, etc. Was it just being childish or *****ic behaviour?
Stating a fact does not mean defeat. Certainly UPND will fix it good.
And this unreasonable chant for free education now should stop. The free education will be rolled out in stages starting with Primary school kids in poor areas and gradually roll it out. Yapping for the sake of it is dishonourable and ridiculous. Grow up whoever you are!
Bola naikosa
One of the things, truthful analysis that former British Prime Minister { Tony Blair }, the only successful Labour Party leader who won 3 consecutive terms said was:
” When we won the 1997 General Elections, we spent the first 2 years still thinking like an opposition party, instead of a ruling or governing party.”
UPND should avoid going into War-of-Words. It s a total destruction and waste of energy at this junction. If anything it will devalue their standing. If UPND thrives, it’s good for everyone in Zambia and we want them to succeed, because it will raise the standard of living for many Zambians.
Ok we have heard the treasury was empty, so wat is next? Why are we being told about the empty grz coffer. Are we expected to donate or wat? Is it for our information or action. We have put a government already so just fix it.
The reserves are not for paying contractors, retirees etc. They are to cover imports. ZRA has been collecting huge amounts but somewhat they have not found themselves in the treasury coffers to pay for services and local debts – including the contractors. Conspicuous consumption is where the money went. Flash cars, trips, allowances, mansions for officials, campaigns, bribes. And for goodness sake, stating that the coffers are empty doesn’t literally mean nil! It means there is not enough to sustain any services. It’s alarmingly low!
The new Presidential aide for Press and PR needs to stop thinking like he is in opposition, or indeed responding like he is talking on behalf of the UPND.
He needs to isolate comments on PF and needs to stop responding to allegations raised by the PF.
Speak for the President of the country, you are no longer representing the President of the UPND.
How much debt did PF find in 2011 from MMD? The total debt was $3.5bn from which external creditors were owed USD2bn out of that total.
ZRA collection was K18bn
PF never found any money, but didn’t blow any trumpet. dispute this ZRA revenue figure.
Leadership calls for multi sector approach.
@Mercury #11.
When the president promised us free education at every level, he probably thought there is another bank account to draw from for zambia to actualise it? Don’t use this Empty Coffer hullabaloo to scapegoat and veer off.
PF government of crooks missed Eurobond payment precisely bcoz the coffers were empty.
Only 10 days in PF are demanding for free education when they failed to provide more money in people’s pockets. Stop it PF you didn’t even vote for HH. Let those who voted for HH demand for free education not you who failed to provide more money in people’s pocket in over a decade.
You should try your best not to take anything trolls say seriously. No matter how poorly they behave, remember these people spend countless unproductive hours trying to make people mad. They’re not worth your time of the day.
#8Top analyst. Councils are supposed to raise their own money for salaries. GRZ gives them, I forget what they call it to meet the short fall. I’m paying four thousand Kwacha per year to the council and so are other people so the council should be able to pay it’s workers without waiting for GRZ.
#4 Pundu in my humble opinion the reduction of the cost of the dollar will result in shortages of this commodity. Some currencies cost as much as 100 to a dollar but the economies are very stable. Here in Zambia we don’t know which is better a weak Kwacha or a strong Kwacha. Zambia is the only country where economists are more concerned with bringing down their fellow professionals, where theory takes precedence over practical. I saw it in the mines where the university one attended was more important than what one was employed to do. Very good at forum discussion.
Updn government better get to work not behaving like you are in opposition , yes you inherited empty coffers so now get to work and start delivering promises one by one otherwise 5 years is so soon and you will find yourself in 2026 still talking about inherited empty coffers just get to work
Please put a cabinet in place & get to work, Zambians are suffering. No one can win a sane argument against the PF, that’s why they got overwhelmingly chucked out coz according to their warped reasoning, Zambia was paradise. A land flowing with kandolo & world class infrastructure.
Anthony Bwalya and his boss should start looking for money to fill up the GRZ coffers. He and his boss think running government is like running a business where at the end of the year you declare profits or dividends. Whatever money you raise from taxes has to be spent on providing services. We look forward to seeing a UPND government declaring profits at the end of each year and not providing services to the Zambia people. For they do not seem to realise they are there to serve.
BoZ reserves are not the same as the treasury. Parliament votes a budget, authorised taxes to be collected and public funds to be spent. That is the treasury. The international reserves are not a part of government expenditure. So mentioning them is simply a false flag.
Let state house print a statement of account for Zambians to see the balance for the reserve account as of August, 2021
We know it is true, the PF d0gs looted everything
Ba Bwalya since tamulefwaya ukuleka ili lyashi, ma shinga bafwile ba amba ukusonka abena Zambia for you to start working. It appears you don’t know where money for running government comes from. Tell me PF was spending more than budget allocations I will understand. Government coffers are transit points for service delivery and not for keeping money. Can you keep money in the account and your landlord is knocking on your door. The same loans people keep talking about, interests where being paid before default. Please bane end this issue and start working. I like HH’s zeal and we should support him and advise him sincerely not giving him false information.
The president should stop undressing Zambia to the foreign media like he used to when he was in opposition.
After a year, HH will have grey hair
Strange and useless debate. The man has not even has a single spending cycle and people expect him to solve all problems. In my view, he has waved a magic wand by causing an appreciation in the Kwacha. Let us have this discussion after one year.
What we want from UPND is a roadmap with clear milestones so that we can measure their performance.
So stop embarrassing yourselves by expecting a president to change the economy. Even Sata said 90days in which time he still failed to deliver. BTW, a change of currency can assist to bring in all the cash crops into the financial system.