The opposition Zambians for Empowerment and Development (ZED) says it is not convinced with the clarification that the Ministry of Finance has given on the status of the country’s domestic debt.
On Thursday this week Acting Secretary to the Treasury Felix Nkulukusa disclosed that government’s domestic debts is standing at K17.6 billion or approximately 14 percent of GDP as earlier announced by Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda.
But ZED president Frederick Mutesa has charged if the Ministry of Finance maintains this position of the country’s domestic debt, the Auditor General’s office should also be allowed to audit both the Road Development Agency (RDA) and all the contracts that are being disbursed by it.
Dr. Mutesa has told Qfm news in a telephone interview that this is because his party’s concerns are that alleged delay to pay contractors working on various infrastructure projects is making government to accrue arrears which are also attracting interest.
The ZED president says this delayed payment to contractors is what his party fears will lead to the ballooning of the country’s domestic debt.
The opposition leader notes there is already an example of a contractor working on the Kasaba bay and Ndola-Kitwe carriageway projects, Ng’andu Consulting Limited which, due to delayed payment, is said to be accumulating interest of not less 2 hundred thousand kwacha per month.
He says given the number of other known infrastructure projects where government is also said to be having trouble to pay the contractors, the situation therefore should one of concern.
Ki masholi!
About time we got a glimpse of what is actually happening at RDA under Sata’s watch.
Now we are talking.Please audit RDA.Road contracts are only given to user friendly companies.LETS BE SERIUOS ABOUT THE WAY OUR TAXI PAYERS MONEY IS BEING SPENT.RDA DIRECTORS HAVE ALL BOUGHT FARMS,BOUHGT HOUSES,TIPPER TRUCKS.HONKONG ACCOUTS.
IF THIS GOV SAYS ITS NOT CORRUPT LET IT SET UP A COMMISSION OF INQURIES.
ZAMBIANS WILL BE SHOCKED
The list begins.china geo@china jangzxi@china hanan@sinohydro@china new era@china shisholeka.by the way what happened to that contractor who was awarded kasisi road but had no equipment (RDA THIVIES) its all china china. Lets just call it china project
In the end all that money that might have been saved and diverted to front line services is ending up in the pockets of a greedy few….its just retrogressive. How do these people sleep at night sleeping from their own great grand children.
You cannot not literally use the God creation powers to develop the country as you are currently doing. “Let there be a dual carriageway” – alas the road was there! “Let there be a hospital” behold! a state of the art hospital stood in the centre of the city. “Let there be a new airport terminal” Mama Mia a big airport terminal bigger than Heathrow Termina 5 sprawled the grounds of where the old one was and Sata rested after 2 years….. and you lived sadly thereafter due to serious debt. Borrowing without controls in place will leave us in serious problems for years to come. We have never gotten out of the problems left behind by the Kaunda’s borrowing and Alex is still witness to what happened back in the day. They said lightning never struck twice – they were wrong Alex is…
…living proof!
A debt of $10billion is too low for Zambia, with such huge infrastructure backlog. Infrastructure development can also stimulate further economic growth, reduce poverty and unemployment. Responsible borrowing should be encouraged to grow the economy, as long as we can service the debt.
One hit wonder.u must be full of theory.kaunda built the universities u went to, if at all u went to one. He built the schools, hospitals,roads whivh until now have never been expanded.if u see how congested kitwe central hospital is, u would agree with PF as the start building more hospitals.
Kayula thanks.people need roads, and not clever views.when i went thru pedicle and saw how people suffer. I would rather the govt borrow than see people suffer like that.
It is true. These thing were built in the Kaunda era.
But that is not the point. They COST ten or twenty times as much as they should have due to the Old Fools economic mis-management.
In other words, we should have had twenty times as many schools, hospitals and universities for the Zambian taxpayers money spent by now.
Instead we have his useless bomb shelter under State House that is no value to ordinary Zambians at all.