DAILY PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES FOR THE FIRST SESSION OF THE TENTH ASSEMBLY

Thursday, 9th November, 2006

The House met at 1430 hours

[MR SPEAKER, in the Chair]

NATIONAL ANTHEM

PRAYER

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QUESTION

PUPILS WHO DID NOT ATTEND THE ON GOING 2006 GRADE 12 EXAMINATIONS IN LUSAKA

1. Mr Lubinda (Kabwata) asked the Minister of Education:

(a) what led to the more than 613 pupils in Lusaka not to attend the on-going 2006 Grade 12 Examinations;

(b) how many other pupils are in a similar predicament in Zambia;

(c) what the Government was doing about the plight of the affected pupils; and

(d) what measures the Government had taken to avoid similar incidents.

The Minister of Education (Prof. Lungwangwa): Mr Speaker, I would like to inform the House that what led to the 613 pupils not sitting for the end of year examinations was non-adherence to established guidelines by registering centre. The registration centre over registered pupils beyond its capacity. The capacity of the centre for pupils to sit for examinations at Nyenyezi Institute is 360, but the centre over registered by 613, leading to the over registered children not to sit for the examinations.

The Ministry of Education identified the problem and directed the centre to advise the affected children to find centres elsewhere and register, but the directive was not followed. On the other hand, those affected pupils did not verify their registration status. Consequently, Mr Speaker, the affected pupils, who are 613 in number, have not sat for the examinations which are currently going on.

I thank you, Sir.

Mr Lubinda: Mr Speaker, with your indulgency, I do not seek to raise a supplementary question yet, but I wish to point out that the hon. Minister has only answered part (a) of my question.

Prof. Lungwangwa: Mr Speaker, with regard to how many other pupils are in a similar predicament in Zambia, to the best of the knowledge of the ministry, there are only 400 other pupils who are said to have registrered for examinations at a school in Lusaka called Kwacha Secondary School, but the information available, so far, indicate that the school is neither a registered school nor is it a registered centre.

As regards what the Government was doing about the plight of the affected pupils, Mr Speaker, they have been advised to collect their refunds, and identify centres where they can register for next year’s examinations in 2007.

As far as what measures the Government had taken to avoid similar incidents, the ministry will advertise all the examination centres with effect from next year for the attention of both the pupils and parents so that everybody affected is aware of the location and status of examination centres.

In addition, Mr Speaker, we shall put in place sensitisation measures so that the parents and pupils know that examinations are not just held anywhere, but in centres which are recognised by the Ministry of Education.

I thank you, Sir.

Mr Lubinda: Mr Speaker, on the basis that our school education system is such a steep pyramid, every year lots of our children are dropped out of the school system, can the hon. Minister give any assurance that the unfortunate 1, 013 children who by no means of their own have been stopped from writing examinations will, next year, be granted a chance to sit for examinations? Could the hon. Minister also inform us what the Inspectorate of Schools is doing in the Ministry of Education for them not to take note of this anomaly early enough in the year to prevent these children from losing a year?

Prof. Lungwangwa: Mr Speaker, it is not the Ministry of Education that has stopped the 1,013 children from writing the examinations. The Ministry of education has created an environment for all the parents and all the children to register for examinations, but it is sometimes the children themselves, like in the case of the ones that registered at Kwacha Secondary School, that have made the mistake …

Hon. Opposition Members: The children?

Prof. Lungwangwa: … of registering at a secondary school that is not recognised by the Ministry of Education.

Interruptions

Prof. Lungwangwa: The information about the status of various institutions, whether, they are examination centres or not is readily available.
It is up to those affected, in this case, to register appropriately.  Therefore, it is not the fault of the Ministry of Education that this happened.

I thank you, Sir.

Mrs Musokotwane (Katombola): Mr Speaker, Grade 12 Examination Centre Registration is done around March/April each year. This means that the Ministry of Education, including the Examination Council, was aware of this problem in April this year. Why did the ministry not take steps to prevent it if they were efficient and concerned considering they know the capacity of their examination centres? They know that there are some centres that are not fully utilised. Why did they not transfer the children from Nyenyezi and Kwacha schools to the centres that are not fully utilised. They knew about this problem in March this year.

Prof. Lungwangwa: Mr Speaker, I have clearly indicated that the ministry was aware of the problem and adequate advice was given to the affected institutions. The affected institutions should have taken steps to advise the children to transfer to other centres.

I thank you, Sir.

Mr Mukanga (Kantanshi): Mr Speaker, I would like to find out what the Government is doing to ensure that there is information dissemination to the citizens of Zambia so that they are not found in similar situations.

Mr Speaker: The hon. Minister of Education may emphasise, please.

Prof. Lungwangwa: Mr Speaker, I have already stated, very clearly, …

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Prof. Lungwangwa: … that information on registered examination centres will be advertised. We shall advertise in the media that is easily accessible, on national and community radios, newspapers and televisions.

I thank you, Sir.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Kanyanyamina (Kanchibiya): Mr Speaker, that the hon. Minister has put the blame on the innocent pupils is unacceptable. If he had blamed the teachers, it would have been a bit fair. I think the teachers-in-question should be disciplined.

Mr Speaker: Order! What is your question?

Mr Kanyanyamina: I am sorry, Sir, it was a comment.

Laughter

Mr Imenda (Lukulu East): Mr Speaker, can the hon. Minister assure us that the children that have not sat for the examinations this year will be given an opportunity to do so next year?

Mr Speaker: The hon. Minister may emphasise, again, please.

Prof. Lungwangwa: Mr Speaker, I would like to emphasise, again, that those pupils who have been affected will be adequately advised to sit for the examinations at registered centres next year.
 
I thank you, Sir.

Mr Kambwili (Roan): Mr Speaker, I would like to find out whether the system that used to obtain in schools is still in place. We would register for examinations sometime in May and in October, we would check whether the entries were correct. This job used to be done by the career masters. I would like to find out whether career masters are doing their job or not.

Prof. Lungwangwa: Mr Speaker, verification of the status of registration for examinations is done by the individual pupils themselves, and not the career masters. They are there for career guidance and not the registration for examinations.

I thank you, Sir.

Mr Muntanga (Kalomo): Mr Speaker, it has been normal practice for schools not registered as centres to register pupils and refer them to registered centres. In the event that the schools had registered, but failed to forward the names to registered centres, what action will the Government take against those schools?

Prof. Lungwangwa: Mr Speaker, registration centres for examinations are the schools themselves and any other institution that is recognised as having adequate facilities to conduct examinations. I am not quite clear what the hon. Member is referring to by making a distinction between schools and registration centres because registration centres are the schools themselves and any other institution that is found fit to conduct examinations.

I thank you, Sir.

Mrs Sinyangwe (Matero): Mr Speaker, in the Education Policy, Educating Our Future, I recognise the item to promote partnerships in education. However, while we promote partnership is education, the Ministry of Education is not going to relinquish its responsibility to make sure that the schools that are coming up are regulated. What will the hon. Minister of Education do in future to make sure that the innocent children who have suffered in this case sit for their examinations? We have repeated this question because the hon. Minister is not explicitly assuring us. He is saying that they are advising the pupils and their parents, but this is not good enough.

Sir, we have a responsibility as Ministry of Education to protect the interest of our children and make sure that this malpractice does not repeat itself. What assurance can he give us? We want to be told that the Ministry of Education is going to do something. Some of these children are orphans.

Prof. Lungwangwa: Mr Speaker, there is no better assurance that can be given than to make information on registered examination centres public …

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Prof. Lungwangwa: … so that every parent knows where to register their children for examinations.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Prof. Lungwangwa: I do not think there is any better assurance than that.

I thank you, Sir.

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MOTION

PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMTTEE MEMBERSHIP

The Minister of Finance and National Planning (Mr Magande): Mr Speaker, I beg to move that the following Members do constitute the Public Accounts Committee for the First Session of the Tenth National Assembly:

The hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning;
Mrs E. M. Banda, MP;
Mr E. M. Hachipuka, MP;
Mr C. L. Milupi, MP;
Mr L. M. Mwenya, MP;
Mr B. Y. Mwila, MP;
Mr M. Ndalamei; MP;
Mr P. Sichamba, MP; and
Mr D. M. Syakalima, MP.

Mr Speaker, in proposing that these Members serve on the Public Accounts Committee, let me begin by congratulating all hon. Members of this august on their election in their various constituencies. I wish also to sincerely thank the people of Chilanga Constituency for having endorsed my membership to this important House by voting me as their Member of Parliament. I promise them my total commitment in pursuit of solutions to their innumerable needs.

Sir, the Zambian people have to be saluted for having wisely entrusted the future of their country in His Excellency the President, Mr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, SC, during the September, 2006 elections.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Magande: Under this dedicated and ‘incorruptible’ leader and advocate of the rule of law, I have no doubt that during the next five years, public resources will be wisely used to create the necessary infrastructure and environment that will allow well-meaning Zambians to fulfill their visions and ambitions by fully participating in the nation’s development activities.

Mr Speaker, one of the key functions of Parliament is to oversee the operations of the Executive arm of Government. This and other duties can only be diligently performed by a Parliament which has capable presiding officers and staff. I do recall having benefited immensely from your wise counsel in the past. The Deputy Speaker was an invaluable member of Cabinet and we will, indeed, miss her. The Deputy Chairman of Committees of the Whole House has always been available to use his diplomatic skills whenever need arose. I, therefore, commend hon. Members of this House for choosing such a formidable team of presiding officers who will guide us in our deliberations. I, indeed, congratulate you all.

Mr Speaker, the work of the Public Accounts Committee is to ensure that public resources are prudently raised and utilised and that controlling officers are held accountable for their actions in executing their responsibilities. The Public Accounts Committee is charged with a responsibility of examining accounts, showing the application of monies appropriated by this Parliament to meet public expenditure and also scrutinising the reports of the Auditor-General on these accounts. In the quest to ensure that there is accountability in the utilisation of public resources, the Public Accounts Committee is merely a vanguard as this is a responsibility of each Committee of Parliament you announced only yesterday and of each one of us in this House. In short, the work of the Public Accounts Committee needs to be supplemented by all hon. Members as they collectively pass the Appropriation Bill which allocates public finances to various programmes and projects.

Sir, previous Public Accounts Committees did a commendable job and laid a firm foundation on which the Committee for the First Session of the Tenth National Assembly, without doubt, will build upon. Between 2002 and 2006, the previous committees considered not less than nine reports of the Auditor-General. The work they did, despite some constraints, would not have been achieved without the commitment and dedication of the individual hon. Members of these committees.

In addition, from 2002, the Government has been totally committed to upholding the highest tenets of transparency and accountability in the management of public resources and assets. Many Government leaders have echoed the principle of total zero tolerance to corruption and conversion of public property for personal enrichment. This commitment is evidenced by the continued implementation of the Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Reform Programme (PEMFA).

As the Public Accounts Committee is a strategic partner in achieving the objectives of the programme, capacity building activities were undertaken in 2005 and 2006. This was to strengthen the oversight role of the Committee. Considering that we now have new members of the Committee, the Ministry of Finance and National Planning, through PEMFA, intends to carry out capacity building programmes for the new Committee members.

Mr Speaker, I wish to assure the House that my ministry will endeavour to see to it that appropriate and timely actions are taken on the recommendations of the Committee. Suffice it to say that the Committee is assured of the full support and co-operation of my ministry and the Government in general.

In conclusion, I wish the Public Accounts Committee for the First Session of the Tenth National Assembly all the best. I encourage them to carry out their duties in the same diligent, faithful, efficient and effective manner as the previous committees whose work was greatly appreciated by the House.

Mr Speaker, I beg to move.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Kasongo (Bangweulu): Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to support the motion which has been ably moved by the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning.

Sir, the hon. Members who have been appointed to be part of this Committee are men and women of integrity and I have no doubt, in my mind, that they will discharge their responsibilities to the best of their ability.

Sir, I would like to emphasise the last sentence which has been underlined by the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning that he is going to take timely and appropriate action on the recommendation of the Public Accounts Committee. Hon. Minister, all of us will be too happy to see that the assurance that you have given to this House today, will be actioned as quickly as possible.

Mr Speaker, experience has shown that a number of recommendations which have been made by a number of committees, especially the Public Accounts Committee, have not been actioned by the Government-of-the-day through the Ministry of Finance and National Planning, thereby making the work of the Committee very difficult.

Mr Speaker, all of us expect that once a Controlling Office or any officer who has been given the responsibility of managing the financial resources of the country has committed a crime in of one form or another, and a recommendation has been made by the Public Accounts Committee for action to be taken, we expect nothing short of action to be taken as quickly as possible.

Mr Speaker, examples abound, I was privileged to chair the Committee and we made a number of recommendations, especially on the Nanga Farms. I have a report before me where we made far-reaching recommendations that the Managing Director who transferred shares in dollars outside the country be taken to court. To date, no action has been taken.

Mr Speaker, there are other examples that we can give, but due to limited time, I will not cite them. I would like to appeal to the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning to ensure that the commitment that he has made to this House today will be actioned as soon as possible. There should be no sacred cows. Whether a Zambian or non-Zambian has committed an offence that has been brought to the attention of the Government, through the Public Accounts Committee, action must be taken as quickly as possible.

After all, responses to a number of questions that will be asked on the Floor of this House, in trying to find out from the Government whether certain projects will be implemented, are in the negative. It always said that such an action will be taken when funds will be made available, yet year in and year out, a number of Controlling Officers have been misappropriating funds.

However, your Committee has been kind enough to advise the Government to take action against those Controlling Officers and other officers, but the responses that we always get from the Government are very disappointing. Sometimes an officer who is supposed to be punished is promoted. Therefore, we expect the Public Accounts Committee to be active or effective so that such cases come to an end.

Once a recommendation has been made by the Speaker’s Committee that officer X has committed a crime, action must be taken against that officer. It follows, therefore, that the Government should comply instead of promoting such an officer because by so doing, it it is undermining the integrity of the Public Accounts Committee.

Mr Speaker, I expect the Government-of-the-day to respect the concept of separation of powers. Once a committee report has been tabled in the House and recommendations have been made to the Government, they must seem to comply and take appropriate action.

Similarly, we would like to see an improvement in the Treasury minutes. Sometimes the responses that we get from the Government are very frustrating. We sometimes recommend action be taken on officer X who has misappropriated some funds. In response, they will simply say that it is noted for compliance. Does it imply that you say noted for compliance or what? This shows that we are not serious.

Mr Speaker, the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning has assured this House that appropriate action will be taken against all these officers. I would, therefore, like to put it to him that if that assurance will not be implemented by the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning, we remind him that he made an assurance on the Floor of the House which he have failed to implement.

Mr Speaker, I thank you.

Mr Lubinda (Kabwata): Mr Speaker, I thank you for allowing me to contribute to this very important motion.

Mr Speaker, like the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning has said, the Public Accounts Committee is a very important Committee of this House. Its fundamental functions include Parliament’s oversight and watchdog role over the Executive on financial management. In trying to understand better what the Public Accounts Committee is really meant to be, I researched in Erskine May’s Parliamentary Practice, 22nd Edition. On page 677 of the book it says the following about Public Accounts Committees:

‘Its main functions are to see that public monies are applied for the purposes prescribed by Parliament, that extravagance and waste are minimised and that sound financial practices are encouraged in estimating and contracting and in administration generally. The Committee also has a particular duty to look at excess votes.’

Mr Speaker, in relation to that, I also found in our own Standing Orders, at Standing Order No. 153 (2) the following provision:

‘The Public Accounts Committee shall examine the account showing the appropriation of sums granted by the Assembly to meet the public expenditure, the Report of the Auditor-General on the accounts and such other accounts. The Committee will also exercise powers conferred to it under Article 117(5) of the Constitution of Zambia.’

Mr Speaker, it is clear from what I have read both Erskine May and our Standing Orders that there is a very close relationship between the Public Accounts Committee and the Office of the Auditor-General. It is clear that the role of the Auditor-General of a watchdog is exactly the same as that of the Public Accounts Committee.

On the other hand, the Financial Management and Control Act, Cap 347 of the Laws of Zambia, at Section 3 provides that the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning will have the total authority for management, supervision, control, direction and reporting, through the Government Treasury, of all matters relating to financial affairs of the Government. This, therefore, demonstrates the relationship that should exist between the Public Accounts Committee and the Auditor-General on one hand, and the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning on the other. It is a relationship of implementer and monitor, with the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning being number one chief executive with regard to the implementation of all fiscal policies and resource allocations appropriated by this House. On the other hand, the Public Accounts Committee and the Auditor-General are supposed to monitor what the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning is doing.

This is provided for in the Standing Orders and, with your permission, allow me to refer to the Standing Orders that established the Public Accounts Committee. This is provided for at Clause 153 (1) and it states:

‘There shall be a Sessional Committee to be designated the Public Accounts Committee consisting of nine members other than the Vice-President, Minister, Deputy Minister or any member appointed or acting in any office prescribed by or under any Act of Parliament appointed by the Assembly at the commencement of every session. The quorum of the Committee shall be four.’

Sir, this is the provision of the Standing Orders by which this House should regulate its operations. It is very clear in this House that the Public Accounts Committee shall not have, amongst its members, any person who is Vice-President, Minister, Deputy Minister or a person holding any such office as is provided for by the Constitution of the land. The reason for this is very clear. You cannot have one person executing and, at the same time, monitoring the execution.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: That compromises the doctrine of the separation of powers. When the last Session of National Assembly sat to amend these Standing Orders, they took cognisance of this provision. They knew that the practice of this House has been that the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning shall be a member of the Public Accounts Committee. Had that been the intention of the House, it would have been amended. The fact that it remained as it is, means, therefore, that the intention of this House is to ensure that the Public Accounts Committee is removed from the yoke of the Executive to give it the independence or autonomy it requires for it to fulfill its functions of the watchdog, supervisor and monitor on how the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning is using people’s tax.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: Mr Speaker, therefore, I would like to submit that it is totally illegal or to be moderate, against the Standing Orders for the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning to propose that he be a member of the Public Accounts Committee, unless he wishes to amend this provision on the Floor of the House now.

Sir, secondly, I know that has been practiced, but everyone in this country has been crying for increasing the autonomy of the Office of the Auditor-General. Members in this House and their colleagues before them have been calling for giving more autonomy to the Office of the Auditor-General. The Office of the Auditor-General is a permanent witness on the Public Accounts Committee. Erskine May, in his 22nd edition states the relationship between the Auditor-General and the Public Accounts Committee as follows:

‘The Committee also considers memorandum submitted by the Controller and the Auditor-General either on his own initiative or in response to requests made by the Committee and Treasury minutes containing the Government’s observations on previous Committee Reports. The Controller and the Auditor-General is required to take into account any proposals made by the Committee in determining his programme of economy, efficiency and effectiveness of examinations.’

Sir, if the Auditor-General is bound to follow recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee, how shall the Auditor-General do so independently if the Public Accounts Committee itself has, amongst it members, the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning? Naturally, the Auditor-General, through the back door, shall be subdued by the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning.

Sir, further, I would like to say that much precedence is that the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning has been a member of this Committee and he has been proposing members of this Committee for us to be in consonance with what he is providing in the Standing Orders, and also following practices and procedure of the Commonwealth Parliament as provided for by the good Erskine May. We do oppose this motion laid by the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning, unless anyone in this House is capable of demonstrating the contradiction to us in the Standing Orders.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: Sir, for this purpose, I would rather that we stick to the law than wrong precedences. Furthermore, I would like to say that the Standing Orders provide for the scrutiny of the appointment of members of the Public Accounts Committee. The Standing Order that I read states that members of the Public Accounts Committee shall be appointed by this Assembly. I know that there is a lacuna in that provision because it does not specify the procedure of appointing members of the Public Accounts Committee.

Sir, if you relate that matter to other provisions for the appointment of members of other General Purpose Committees, you shall see that there is a provision, very clearly spelt out, that those members shall be appointed by a named Committee namely: the Standing Orders Committee. There then lies the lacuna I am referring to. I would like to propose that in keeping with our responsibility of up holding the Constitution of the land, we let this motion fall away. We should oppose and reject this motion and do what is provided for in the Standing Orders. That is, referring this matter to the Standing Orders Committee that should interpret exactly the provisions of Article 153(1) of the Standing Orders.

Sir, furthermore, in my maiden speech, I did make a number of proposals on the modernisation of Parliament. One of them was the allocation of members to committees. I do appreciate how difficult it is for our Standing Orders Committee to allocate all the Backbenchers to various Committees, taking into account gender and political party representation, experience and profession. I know this is extremely difficult. However, to reiterate what I said in my maiden speech, the bottom line is that all political parties represented in this House are alternative Governments in their own right. This means that even a party with one hon. Member such as NDF must have a possibility to decide on which watchdog Committee their member must sit. As a matter of fact, they are alternative Governments-in-waiting …

Mr Speaker: Order! The hon. Member of Parliament has made his point. Does he or does he not support the motion before the House before he wonders on the appointment of other Committees. He made a point.

Mr Lubinda: Mr Speaker, I wish to make it very categorically clear that I do not support the motion on the Floor. I would like to appeal to all Members of this House to assist all of us to abide by the provisions of the laws that govern the operations of this House.

I thank you, Sir.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Muyanda (Sinazongwe): Mr Speaker, thank you for giving me an opportunity to debate the motion which is very important to this august House. The Public Accounts Committee is one of the most significant or very important Committees of this House and this land. In support of this motion, without reservation, …

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Muyanda: … I would also like to congratulate the hon. Members who have been elected to this very important Committee. The importance of the role of a watchdog Parliament plays is not merely to watch, but also give professional advice so that the officers in our public offices do not make organised malpractices or commit crimes of fraudulent accounting and other forms of white collar crimes.

Mr Speaker, with a team of diligent hon. Members that has been assembled, I am quite confident that the Government will also consider a preventive or fraud squad to be established at an appropriate stage.

Mr Speaker, white-collar crime is escalating because we do not have this organ which is supposed to be very well equipped with men and women who understand the fraudulent accounting system. We have gone into computer sciences. Owing to computer sciences, some accounts in our foreign missions are being milked through fraudulent practices because there is no prevention mechanism. Therefore, it becomes very difficult for the Government to even prosecute the offenders.

Mr Speaker, in support of this motion, I am urging the Government to consider one more important matter which is to strengthen the internal system, the external audit system, and prepayment audit because these are professional services which this Government should take very seriously. I am also urging other hon. Members that it does not help to use unpalatable language among ourselves. The time is gone. Now, we have a burden of delivering service to the people of Zambia.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Muyanda: Mr Speaker, with these few words, I would like to commend the Committee and I thank you, Sir.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Dr Chishimba (Kasama Central): Mr Speaker, I beg to oppose the motion on the Floor of the House on the following account.

Mr Speaker, as you are aware, Zambia is a single Executive which simply means that all powers of running the country are vested in the President. Of course, it is impracticable for the President to discharge all those responsibilities that are bestowed on him. Therefore, with him, we have Cabinet Ministers who help the President to discharge those responsibilities that are bestowed upon him by law. Therefore, to ensure that the Executive does not apply the powers, as it is discharging its functions, in an arbitrary manner, we have Parliament to offer checks and balances in the system.

Mr Speaker, if you allow a situation where we have a full Cabinet Minister to be a Member of a Public Accounts Committee which is a Watch-dog Committee, in this particular case, one that ensures that line ministries and other public institutions adhere to budgets allocated to them, the principle of offering checks and balances will elude us. This will also prevent the situation which is obtaining currently in the country where line ministries and other public institutions expend far beyond what was allocated to them by this august House from being corrected.

Hon. PF Members: Hear, hear!

Dr Chishimba: Sir, very soon, we will be considering the Supplementary Estimates and, of course, we will have an opportunity to talk about it. We are going to see horrendous failure on the part of the Government to adhere to what was approved by this august House, a situation where Supplementary Estimates are 1,000 per cent over and above what was allocated. Then, that of course, invites a lot of questions on the transparency and accountability systems that have been put into place. Yet, on the paper, the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning has been saying that they have introduced an Activity-Based Budget System which is commendable. What we have seen happening over the years is actually contrary to that because whilst that system enhances transparency and accountability, what you are seeing is a situation where there is actually total diversion from what was approved.

Mr Speaker, I, therefore, strongly propose that the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning not be part of the Public Accounts Committee in order to enhance the autonomy of this Committee. On the other hand, this will ensure that the Committee performs its function of a watch dog which, I believe, will also ensure that the manner in which we deal with current corrupt practices is applied in a non-selective way.

Mr Speaker, I believe that this is a good advice which the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning must actually take because if, for instance, his ministry is found wanting and he is part of that Committee, he will sit on those anomalies that would have been exposed by the Committee.

Sir, I also would like to assure him that if such a situation is allowed to continue to be implemented, he is going to be sitting on a time bomb. Come 2011, if the Government changes, he will see a situation where everything erupts, he will have many trials, which we are talking about here. This is not just a talk show. Whatever we are talking about is not a mere talking exercise. We are very serious about this and, therefore, strongly submit that this motion be opposed in the strongest of terms.

I thank you, Sir.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Chambaka (Bahati): Mr Speaker, I also stand to oppose the motion on the Floor that all of us here are the Legislature which is the most important organ of legislation. Therefore, if, indeed, the Standing Orders are part and parcel of our pieces of legislation, I see no reason we should not adhere to what we legislate. If we do that, the people will doubt the integrity of the House.

Mr Speaker, on that ground, I maintain that there is a need to oppose this practice because it is our own defiance of legislation and we cannot say no to what we agreed to.

I thank you, Mr Speaker.

Hon. PF Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Magande: Mr Speaker, I would like to thank you for giving me time to wind up the discussion on this particular issue.

Sir, I have attentively listened to Hon. Lubinda who seems to have done his research extensively. He talks of tradition, practice and precedents. Indeed, I have also listened to Dr Chishimba who has raised quite a number of issues, including that come 2011, the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning could find himself charged because he was sitting on an oversight body.

Sir, in view of those comments, I would not like the hon. Minister to be taken to court in 2011. Therefore, I would like to ask that we defer consideration of this motion.

I thank you, Sir.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Speaker: Order! The new hon. Members of the House should know that it is not unusual for this House to defer debate on motions or any other matter. Therefore, what the hon. Minister has done is usual.

The mover seeks permission of the House to defer further debate on the motion as he has requested. That ‘Hear, hear!’ indicates no objection. Permission is so granted.

Question put and agreed to. Leave granted.

Motion, by leave, deferred.

SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATES NO. 1 OF 2006

The Minister of Finance and National Planning (Mr Magande): Mr Speaker, I beg to move that the House do now resolve into Committee of Supply to consider the Supplementary Estimates No. 1 of 2006.

Sir, I am a bearer of a message from His Excellency the President recommending favourable consideration of the motion.

Mr Speaker, the Supplementary Estimates I am presenting to the House has been prepared in accordance to the Article 115(2)(d) of the Zambian Constitution which reads:

‘No warrant shall be issued by the President authorising expenditure from the general revenues of the Republic unless no provision exists for the expenditure and the President considers that there is such an urgent need to incur the expenditure that it would not be in the public interest to delay the authorisation of the expenditure until such a time as a supplementary estimate can be laid before and approved by the National Assembly.’

Sir, by virtue of the authority conveyed in the Article of the Constitution quoted above, I have the honour to present the Supplementary Estimates covering the financial year 2006. The total Supplementary Estimates stands at K1,011.5 billion against any amount K1,001.8 billion for 2005. Of this amount, a sum of K367.8 billion represents savings declared from heads of expenditure within the approved Budget. An amount of K80.7 billion is in respect of funds released to spending agencies towards the end of the financial year 2005 and only spent in 2006. This, therefore, leaves a balance of K562.9 billion as new money. This is 5.5 per cent of the original 2006 approved Budget.

Mr Speaker, having moved from 13.2 per cent in 2002, a 5.5 per cent Supplementary Estimates in 2006, a year of tripartite elections, clearly shows a marked improvement in Budget planning and execution.

Sir, there was great apprehension that the Government was going to burst the Budget this year. However, due to the strict financial discipline which has become the hallmark of the New Deal Administration, …

Mr Tetamashimba: Hear, hear!

Mr Magande: … we planned in advance and spent within the agreed financial limits. This means that we are on course to attain the macroeconomic parameters that were indicated in the 2006 Budget.

Mr Speaker, before I give explanation on the individual amounts, I wish to state that this is the first time that Supplementary Estimates are being presented for approval to a Parliament that did not approve the main Budget. Consequently, many Members, who are new, will not relate the supplementary expense to the debates on policy and projects that informed the approval of the Estimates for 2006 whose debate was between January and March 2006. As the name implies, Mr Speaker, supplementary estimates are additional funding for programmes or projects which would already have been approved in the original Budget, and indicated in the Yellow Book, and, therefore, they should not become subject of fresh policy debate.

 In order, however, to assist the hon. Members, we have provided some notes indicating what the Supplementary Estimates are to capture:

(a) carry-over amounts by spending agencies from 2005, but spent in 2006;

(b) additional revenue earned during the year;

(c) funds received from donors above the estimates that were agreed to during the year; and

(d) transfers within the Budget to show where the actual expenditures were incurred.

Mr Speaker, in anticipation of the parliamentary calendar change, as has happened this year, in future, my ministry will try to provide more detailed information in the supplementary estimates so that Members do not need to refer to the Yellow Book when comparing the two sets of estimates. It is also hoped that the proposed amendment to the Constitution to provide for the presentation of the budget in the year before its execution, will, indeed, synchronise the presentation the two sets of estimates.

Sir, allow me now to highlight the spending items with the substantial amounts:

 Under the Ministry of Finance and National Planning, a total of K442.1 billion has been allowed to cover payment of salary and wage award of 13 per cent to all civil servants which was effective April, 2006 as agreed after the negotiations with the unions. There is also an element to pay for the construction of an office block for the National Roads Fund Agency to create more space and to cope with the increased number of staff and also to cover operations of the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA).

The figure also includes an amount required to pay for utility services of electricity, water and telephone bills for the entire Government system, arrears to road contractors, housing allowance of 40 per cent to employees in the Ministries of Education and Health, current housing allowances to all eligible employees and variation of funds from Head 99, to cover holders of constitutional posts in the institutions where they are located.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives has been allocated a total sum of K100.4 billion. The bulk of this amount will be applied on the purchase of maize under the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) during the current crop marketing season and to record funds which were released under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), but not included in the original 2006 Budget.

The vote on Loans and Investments, under my ministry, has been allowed a total sum of K112.9 billion to cater for the recapitalisation and restructuring of some parastatal organisations including INDENI, and payment of contributions to the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA).

Mr Speaker, a total sum of K58.6 billion has been allocated to the Ministry of Health. The bulk of this amount will fill the gap created by the abolition of payments of User Fees. Funds came from the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom Government. The doctor’s Retention and Motor Vehicle Loan Scheme will also be funded from the above mentioned amount. The remainder will cater for the payment of the on-call allowance that was increased by 100 per cent with effect from July 2006.

Under the Ministry of Justice, a total sum of K35.9 billion has been allowed to mainly cover payment of legal fees to international lawyers that represented the country.

Mr Speaker, the provinces have been allocated a total sum of K32.1 billion. This amount is being applied mainly on the Poverty Reduction Programme and these are balances of funds which were released during the 2005 financial year, but spent in 2006.

Finally, Sir, the Electoral Commission of Zambia has been allowed a total sum of K23.2 billion to cater for the payment of outstanding bills which were incurred during the second extension of the Voter Registration Exercise.

Mr Speaker, I beg to move.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Kakoma (Zambezi West): Mr Speaker, I thank you for allowing me to contribute to the debate on the motion.

Mr Speaker, in the first instance, I would like to state that I am seriously opposed to this motion. It was just a few months ago that Parliament approved its National Budget. For the hon. Minister or Government to come up with a Supplementary Budget of K1 trillion within one year, shows a high level of poor planning and budgeting which this House should not be part of. It should not be used to endorse …

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Kakoma: … the poor planning and budgeting of the Government.

Mr Speaker, we have been undergoing some budgetary reforms and part of it was that we moved away from general budgeting to an activity-based budgeting system. This means that each activity in the country that was foreseen to be carried out in the year should have been budgeted for. There is no way we can start introducing new items of expenditure mid-way through the year. An activity-based budget implies that we only stick to the activities that have already been approved by this House. Even if there is an error in the estimates, it cannot amount to K1 trillion or K500 billion as additional funding for the projects. I, therefore, think that we should not be used, as a Parliament, to support poor planning and budgeting by the Executive.

For example, Sir, how do we, as a Parliament, agree with the Executive that we should authorise K13 billion to purchase vehicles for the Office of the President this year. Did they not know that, this year, they would need vehicles? Why did they omit that in the main Budget? Why should they come now to ask for K13 billion to purchase vehicles for the Office of the President. Surely, those are the most intelligent people we have in the country. They should have known that they needed vehicles budgeted for in their capital expenditure. We will, therefore, be doing ourselves a disservice if we agreed to spend this kind of money this year. Since it was their fault that they failed to foresee this expenditure, they should wait for next year’s budget.

Mr Speaker, we should also move towards making reforms work in Zambia. For example, for many years, and we have talked and complained in this House that we should, as much as possible, do away with Supplementary Budgets, especially that these Supplementary Budgets are brought to the House long after the money has already been spent. What is the purpose of coming to Parliament to ask for additional funding or to ask for approval of a Supplementary Budget, when the Executive has already spent the money? The Executive is trying to use Parliament, for lack of a better word, as a rubber stamp …

Mr Speaker: Order! The word ‘rubber stamp’ is unparliamentary. Use another word.

Laughter

Mr Kakoma: Sir, the Executive is trying to use Parliament inappropriately and we should not allow ourselves to be used in that way.

Mr Speaker, and this is why we have been calling for a new constitution because the new constitution should specifically provide that no money from the public coffers should be spent unless it has been approved by Parliament. The Government should have prepared this new Supplementary Budget and brought it to Parliament for approval before they had spent the money, unlike the situation now where the Executive is taking advantage of a defective Constitution to spend the money without approval by Parliament because there is nothing that Parliament can do. They will just use us to approve the budget.

Mr Speaker, I think this is the more reason this new Constitution should urgently be tabled before this House so that matters such as these dealing with the budget should be dealt with effectively. I stand to oppose this motion because after going through the proposed Supplementary Budget, I find it of very little use or benefit to my province the North Western Province. I would have been very proud to append my signature to this new budget if I had found a supplementary expenditure, for example, on the Mutanda/Chavuma Road. During the main Budget, we were told that they could not increase the amount allocated for the Mutanda/Chavuma Road of K12 billion because we did not have money, but that should money be found, we would be catered for in a Supplementary Budget, but this has not happened. What I am now being told is that I should approve a Supplementary Budget on other items apart from the major project in my province, which is the tarring of the Mutanda/Chavuma Road. This, I find unacceptable.

Mr Speaker, I would have been a proud Member of Parliament to be part of this approval of a Supplementary Budget, had I found that additional money had been found to construct a bridge on the Zambezi River. In this year’s main Budget, there is just K1 billion out of the estimated US$9 million for the construction of the Zambezi Bridge.

Mr Speaker, I would have been very happy, if additional funding were found to construct the Zambezi River. In the absence of that, what moral justification would I have in telling the people of Zambezi that I approved a Supplementary Budget that catered for the whole country, but left out the main projects that they have been crying for? It does not make sense to me.

Mr Speaker, I also think, and for a long time, we have been saying we must be availed full information prior to the hon. Minister’s presentation of supplementary budgets or anything to do with the budget. For example, we have been asking the hon. Minister to tell us how the Budget has performed, so far, before asking us to give him additional money. What happened to the other money that we gave the various ministries?

I have no record of actual expenditure against the budgeted expenditure, but we are being asked to provide additional funding to these ministries without knowing what they did with the money that we already gave them. We need that information for us to be in a position to know whether the money that we gave them was insufficient and they have exhausted it and need additional funding. Presently, we do not know whether they still have that money or they have exhausted it, and yet they are asking us to give them more money based on information we do not have.

Sir, it is also clear that in coming up with this Supplementary Budget, the main items of expenditure have been on recurrent expenditure. It will not help this economy much to come up with Supplementary Budgets only to support recurrent expenses. It would have made much sense if we had come up with the supplementary expenditure for investment so that there is accelerated economic recovery to allow economic growth. However, to come up with a budget that only supports recurrent expenditure, most of it irrelevant and extravagant, will not help this country and this economy.

Sir, going through the Supplementary Budget, I could see that only a few institutions, particularly, the Auditor-General’s Office, made an effort to save money for the Government. They have a lot of prudence in the utilisation of the money that was allocated to them. As a result, they have made savings in that department. The rest of the Government ministries did not exercise this prudence and all they were doing was spend the money because it is Government money. Their attitude is that of ‘Anyway, they will give us additional money, even if we exhaust the funding’. That should not be encouraged. The only way to stop this from happening, in future, is for this Government to be very firm and not approve money to support the extravagancy. If we allocate them money for the year, they should be able to live within that budget. If they are going to work and live outside the budget, they are living beyond their means and this Parliament should not be used to support that kind of extravagancy.

With these few remarks, Mr Speaker, I oppose the motion.

I thank you, Sir.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

The Deputy Minister of Finance and National Planning (Mr Shakafuswa): Mr Speaker, I stand to support the motion before the House.

Hon. Government Member: Hear, hear!

Mr Shakafuswa: Mr Speaker, as they continue with politics, maybe, one day, they will come into Government and realise that running a Government is not cheap and neither can you know and forecast what comes up.

Mr Speaker, a budget is an estimate of activities. When you are budgeting, you cannot say I will budget with certainty. We did not know we were going to produce 33 million bags of maize this year. The Budget allocated K50 billion for the purchase of crops this year. Now, everybody, in their maiden speeches, is asking the Government to purchase the maize.

Hon. Opposition Members: Yes.

Mr Shakafuswa: We, as a Government, have come to allocate extra money to purchase the maize and then someone says the act you did was wrong. We appropriated recurrent expenditure for salaries of civil servants. They negotiated and came up with a salary increment of 40 per cent. Were we supposed to wait for next year to effect that? No, no. We effected it because it came out of a collective agreement, and you know the consequences. There were going to be strikes and the Opposition were going to say the Government is insensitive to the plight of the workers.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Shakafuswa: The Government decides to give them salary increments and someone stands on the Floor of this House and says this is wrong.

Hon. Government Member: Hear, hear!

Mr Shakafuswa: Mr Speaker, that is very wrong. We gave K32.1 billion under provinces. We are asking for extra desks. If you go through your Supplementary Expenditure, you will find that this money went to education, forestry, and some of it, under poverty reduction, went to your roads.

Interruptions

Mr Shakafuswa: Therefore, Mr Speaker, the bottom line here is that we should not debate out of spite. Some of the Members were Cabinet Ministers. They want to come here and pretend that this has not been the trend. Previously, we appropriated Bills which are four or five years late, but this is a current Bill. I think we have to be given credit for that.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Shakafuswa: Mr Speaker, someone talked about the purchase of motor vehicles by the Office of the President. We want it to look as if the Office of the President is not part of us. The peace and stability which we are enjoying in Zambia we cannot have minus that office. You do not know what happens even as you are sleeping. If you have a criminal or evil intent, you will be scared of the Office of the Vice-President, Special Division, because that is your office. It is there to maintain peace and security. Last year, the vote had zero. We did not allocate them any amount for motor vehicles. The elections we just had exposed us to numerous external factors which could destabilise the country.

Interruptions

Mr Shakafuswa: Now, in this House where we know that these people have work to do, you want to debate against this vote. No. We have to be fair.

Mr Speaker, we had relief operations which carried over into this year from the Office of the Vice-President because we still had food deficit areas. We were not going to leave the people to die of hunger. They are our people and if we did that, Hon. Kakoma was going to be the first person to say the Government is insensitive.

Mr Mulongoti: We took food to his area.

Mr Shakafuswa: As a Government, we took food to those people because we did not budget adequately. We took food to his area so that his people could vote for him to come back.

Hon. Government Member: Yes.

Mr Shakafuswa: Mr Speaker, we had problems at INDENI. We are now saying let us recapitalise it so that hon. Members can have fuel and enough supplies in this country, but someone stands up and says let us oppose this. I have been approached by several Members of Parliament who know very well that during the last sitting of Parliament, we appropriated for purchase of motor vehicles for Members of Parliament. They want to purchase motor vehicles outside the Budget now. Now, are you sure you are saying we wait until March, …

Hon. Opposition Members: Next year.

Mr Shakafuswa: … when this House sits?

Interruptions

Mr Shakafuswa: No, no.

Laughter

Mr Shakafuswa: Mr Speaker, the point I am trying to make is that when it affects us, it is okay.

Hon. Opposition Members: Aah!

Mr Shakafuswa: Let me ‘spoil’ the debate in honesty. During the year, people complained about the amounts which people could not afford as user fees at hospitals. People complained about retention of doctors. They are saying doctors are crossing the border to look for greener pastures. As a listening Government, responsible Government, we thought we should buy motor vehicles for doctors as an incentive for a doctor not to leave the country.

Hon. Government Member: Yes.

Mr Shakafuswa: We said let us pay for those who cannot afford to pay user fees. Let us find money and some of this money, as you can see, Mr Speaker, came from outside the country.

Mr Kambwili: On a point of order, Sir.

Mr Speaker: A point of order is raised.

Mr Kambwili: Mr Speaker, is the hon. Deputy Minister of Finance and National Planning in order to discuss privileges of hon. Members of Parliament? We would like to find out if there is anybody in here who has told him that they need cars now.

Mr Shakafuswa: Yourself.

Mr Kambwili: I feel that is unfair, Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker: Order!

The point of order that has been raised by the hon. Member for Roan simply reminds the hon. Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Finance and National Planning that the hon. Members of this House do not debate their own privileges or affairs. Those have other avenues and venues in which they are discussed.

May the hon. Minister take the cue and continue, please.

Mr Shakafuswa: Mr Speaker, all in all, what I was trying to say is that the Government has to be given an opportunity to run.

Sir, as we all know, this motion is straightforward. Under the Constitution, the Government has powers to ask a supplementary budget, unless you say that this motion is unconstitutional. However, it is constitutional and I beg that it be allowed to pass for all well-wishing Zambians, all the people who have good intentions for the Zambians who are represented in this House by the hon. Members of Parliament.

I thank you, Sir.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Matongo (Pemba): Mr Speaker, I did not intend to debate this motion this afternoon. My voice is not the usual clear voice, but national responsibility dictates that I intervene and debate this motion and state the for and against views before I give my opinion on them.

Sir, I interjected as the hon. Deputy Minister of Finance and National Planning debated. I honestly felt that he needed to stop at that point so that we could be persuaded on the Opposition side of the necessity of this document.

I am not for anything beyond what I have been and am, except stand on principle to dictate and speak the convictions of my beliefs and values.

Mr Speaker, over the last five years, until the general elections, the Opposition side debated firmly about these kinds of motions or bills. We were able to reduce the three to five years backlog to the same year of operation. I think that one good deed deserves another.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Matongo: I think Hon. Magande this afternoon withdrew a motion. We thought …

Interruptions

Mr Matongo: You can use your language.

However, he has technically withdrawn or deferred the motion until further notice. Semantics aside, as the hon. Deputy Minister argued that we provided only K50 billion for maize purchases, I would remind him that we told them that K50 billion was insufficient. Well, he was on this side of the House and I suppose I can forgive him.

Laughter

Mr Matongo: Mr Speaker, we need the money for maize purchases. What will I tell the farmers in Pemba who entirely depend on maize and cotton sales? If these items are not bought and the money is not available, what am I going to tell the people of Pemba?

Interruptions

Mr Matongo: No, I just want to be practical. I really do not need any applause. I just want to be factual.

Sir, there is a road that is being constructed very poorly, but I am in touch with those responsible. The road had not been graded for a long time, but is very important. The last time it was graded was 1961. It does not matter who ruled in between. It is being poorly graded now. I have noticed some provisions for it in these Estimates. How do I go to the Ministry of Works and Supply and the Ministry of Finance and National Planning and tell them to have the job improved? What do I tell the people of Pemba? Do you want them to reduce my votes the next time I want to come here?

Laughter

Mr Matongo: Mr Speaker, in case one of the people on your right is suffering from temporary amnesia, I would like to remind him not to spoil their own case. I have gone through the Supplementary Estimates No. 1 of 2006.

Sir, last time, we told them that they were under estimating and causing themselves problems. We told them that now that they had cleared their books of so many years, they should have tried their best not to come back with supplementary estimates of this nature. However, we amended a number of votes. We firmly stood here, advocating for what our friends are saying here. It was an act of irresponsibility, in the name of collective responsibility, not to have put in figures that were correct for this year’s Budget. As a result, we are suffering the consequences.

Mr Speaker, we can argue for or against, but what will be the benefit, at the end of the day, if, infact, the money has already been spent? What we are doing here for those of my colleagues …

Mr Kasongo: It is rubberstamping!

Mr Matongo: Please, let me make my point. I would like to provide leadership here.

Sir, for those of my friends who may not understand the operations of business, particularly of the Government, which has reduced the backlog of five years, this is a book cleaning exercise. It is a debate in futility. The money is gone. You can only warn and advise our friends to budget more realistically than they have done in the past hence, my interjections that the hon. Minister was ‘spoiling’ the debate. It is not, as somebody said here, merely accepting what you are saying because, for the last five years I have been here, I have never accepted everything that you have said. The point I would like to make is that this is a book cleaning exercise. It is positive in some instances.

Now, why are people so anxious about the fact that the Office of the President is going to have cars at this late hour? Those of you with long memories will remember that they had provided for nearly K52.3 billion and we reduced that on this Floor. It has come back. It is as simple as that. Some of us were here.

Sir, I would like to see issues of national importance that made forward references and back positions. Against this background, I wish to support the hon. Minister’s figures. For one, he has persuaded me by withdrawing the earlier motion. Secondly, they have recognised that they have made mistakes, through the debate of the hon Deputy Minister of Finance and National Planning, of under budgeting. Thirdly, we should be factual. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. It may not be for the road in Zambezi, but maize in Pemba. I buy peace and advise that we move ahead and allow the hon. Minister to pass this motion and then warn him that he should not forget that next year is coming.

I thank you, Sir.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Speaker: Let me guide the House.

The House is already debating the Supplementary Estimates No. 1 of 2006. The intention of the motion is to enable the House, once you have resolved, hopefully in favour, to resolve into a Committee of Supply of the Whole House, including the Madam Deputy Speaker, but minus the Speaker. That is when you are going to consider the Supplementary Estimates No. 1 of 2006. You have to go in detail on this matter. Now, as long as you mix up the two, you will not be able to deal with the substance of this motion. I would like to guide you to decide on this motion and then deal with the substance in the Committee of Supply of the Whole House. Unless there are hon. Members who have something new to say, I believe you should resolve this motion.

Mr Hachipuka (Mbabala): Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, I had not intended to debate this particular motion. Unfortunately, the House has substantially changed. If it had not, the House would have recalled that the Budget for 2006 was extensively cut down by this House. The House will recall that at one stage, we wanted to debate at what exchange rate the hon. Minister had budgeted for and the hon. Minister was reluctant to tell us. I would like to remind the House that I am the former Chairman of the Estimates Committee which is the Budget Committee. I had feared that this would come because it was an election year and there were a lot of discussions that surrounded the Budget. We cut the Budget very substantially. The exchange rate that was used, as far as I can recall, was well in excess of K4,700, and yet, if you remember, the exchange rate came down to nearly K3,000 to a US$1. I feared this because the hon. Minister had specific problems. In his tax on imports, he lost a lot of money.

Therefore, I would like to remind this House that this is not a mini exercise. I am happy that he has brought these Supplementary Estimates in 2006. In fact, this has indicated what we were hearing. I would like those of you who want to reject this to go back to the Yellow Book and compare the numbers in there to what was originally submitted and what was eventually approved. You will see the product of these Estimates. I would like to remind and urge this House to approve them, but a lesson should be learnt that budgeting must be extensively consultative.

I thank you, Sir.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Magande: Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to wind up debate on a very straightforward motion that the House do resolve into a Committee of Supply. After that, we will go into the details.

Mr Speaker, in representing this motion, I clearly indicated the areas of big allocations. Now, when Hon. Kakoma says because he cannot see an allocation to a road in his province and, therefore, he would like to reject the motion, I find that to be very odd. If we find the oil in his plot, I fear that he will not give it up for national development. That is not how we should conduct ourselves.

Mr Speaker, supplementary estimates have been presented and …

Mr Speaker: Order!

Business was suspended from 1615 hours until 1630 hours.

Mr Magande: Mr Speaker, when business was suspended, I was just in the process of indicating that for private institutions, whenever they are budgeting, they indicate an item called contingency. I remember sometime back in this House, we used to put a figure of 10 per cent, but there has been opposition that 10 per cent of K10 trillion would be a lot of money to put on unknowns. So, the figure on contingency under the Government budget has been drastically reduced.

Let me indicate, Mr Speaker, that in 2002, when we came here because we were still working on the system of budgeting and planning, our supplementary request was 13.2 per cent. In 2003, the figure came down to 10 per cent of the Budget. In 2004, the figure came down to 8 per cent. In 2005, the figure came down to 5 per cent. This year, we are talking of a figure of 5.5 per cent.

Mr Speaker, on account of what has happened in the last three years, we are, indeed, as Hon. Hachipuka has said, learning to budget properly. We have allowed the Budget to come before this august House. We have also allowed hon. Members to go into detail and we have even gone against what Hon. Lubinda would call tradition. Sometimes, we have even allowed ourselves to increase a budget item even without indicating where the money will come from. Until we come to the end of the two-and-a-half months, that is when we will say, where do we get this money? These are part of the consultative processes that we are undertaking in as far as public resources are concerned. It is no more a preserve of the Ministry of Finance and National Planning and Government, but of this House which has the responsibility to approve an Appropriations Bill after considering the needs of the people who sent us to this House.

Mr Speaker, last year, we had only a figure of K6 billion as contingency. Imagine K6 billion out of an expenditure of K10 trillion. Should one item go out of control, there is no way you can cover it from that expenditure. I explained that 50 per cent of this money is really variations. Now, at the beginning, when we pass the budget, there are items, for example, Public Expenditure (PE) items which we put under Head 99 because, at that moment, the discussions amongst the negotiators are still going on. We do not know what figure will be agreed. What we are doing now is that the figure which we had allocated under Head 99 has been used, for example, by the Ministry of Health. So, the supplementary figures you see here are moving a figure which was approved by this House under Head 99 and has been put where it was spent if it is a PE item because we cannot wait on PE items. However, I know that Hon. Kakoma has gone to consult on what is included in the Budget under North-Western. We have a contractor who has been working there and he has been very tolerant. Most contractors would have already packed and demobilised, but he has said he will continue to work because this is very important infrastructure in a province that seems to be a golden egg-laying province.

This contractor is saying he cannot continue anymore. He wants to be paid. So, I would like to assure this House that contrary to what Hon. Matongo said that most of this has already been spent, we have not spent most of it. For instance, on the money for the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives for Food Reserve Agency, we have persuaded the FRA Board to borrow from the Commercial banks to pay the farmers. This is a Government or national strategic food reserve that ensures that when there is a crisis, I will still eat. We cannot put this kind of expenditure on a balance sheet of an organisation that is going to be charged even 25 per cent. If we do that, it will mean that when we need food, the price will be very high.

Therefore, we want, immediately this is approved, which I am sure of because of the understanding that these are important issues, to pay the FRA for it to liquidate its debts so that the price of the food that we are storing in the country is not increased when we need to give it to our people. These are some of the issues.

On the issues of elections, we must really thank ourselves that we have been able to hold very peaceful elections. I have not heard of a single Zambian who died of fighting during the elections, but someone is asking why we are buying vehicles for the security people. We have to make sure part of that peace is maintained by the Government organs, the police and not by an agricultural officer who cannot safeguard it. This is why we bought equipment for the police although someone is asking why we did not do this at the beginning of this year.

Mr Speaker, as Hon. Hachipuka said, in the Budget, we make some representations that we need so much, but, at the end of the day, we get conscientious that we must reduce the amount.

Mr Speaker, I would like to clearly accept the blame because it was Hon. Hachipuka as Chairman of the Estimates Committee who raised the issue in the document as to what exchange rate was used and how much we were going to lose in revenue because of the appreciation of the Kwacha? I was hopeful that the money would come back by more imports, but it would appear that more imports came, the Kwacha appreciated and we incurred less costs. Therefore, the revenue was less in terms of what we are collecting. That to me, means that what has been said in this House is that we all have to continue learning these figures.

The dynamism of Zambia’s situation now is that nobody can predict what is going to happen if, like has been said that in three years, we will discover oil. Just the time when there will be an announcement from the geologist that we have 20 million barrels of oil, the Kwacha could even go to $1 to a Kwacha. Nobody can predict the amounts. However, I would like to say that both sides of the House, on your left and right, have been trying to come up with something reasonable.

Mr Speaker, I would like to plead that this is not a contentious issue. Those who want the details on why this road is not there, when we come to those figures, we will explain. For now, we need to make sure that our books are balanced. I will, again, be blamed for bringing both the Auditor-General’s and Financial Report late because I have not balanced my books, but and I would like to work on them.

Mr Speaker, this year, I would like to say that everybody in here must praise himself/herself for working hard. We just went through an election.

Mr Speaker, the Government on your right side is determined to choose projects that are going to bring development and wealth to our people. We, therefore, want the other side, as Hon. Matongo said, to think of what we want our people to benefit. Let us go over this accounting part and see how we are going to use the money.

Mr Speaker, we have a figure, for example, for the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives. When I was presenting the Budget, I talked of debt forgiveness, the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative under which 100 per cent of our debts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank (ADB) was going to be written off. I mentioned then that one of the institutions had not concluded the agreement and we did not know what they were going to do. In June, 2006, the IMF said that the board had approved the $18 million which was in the Bank of Zambia which they were supposed to pay to us, move it from a sinking account and put it into Head 63 so that we start spending it, but they asked us what we wanted to do with it. We said that it has to go to agriculture, not salaries or vehicles. We want to reflect it here that because of debt forgiveness, we had this $18 million which we are transferring to the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives. Part of it is what the ministry has used to establish an Irrigation Fund.

I remember one hon. Member, Hon. Nkombo, said that some three years ago, the President said that there had to be a Task Force, and as such, we needed to raise $13 million. Instead of raising the said amount, we raised $18 million in just one stroke of a pen because the way we have handled our financial management.

However, to ask to get back that money from agriculture and keep it in the bank so that you do not balance, to me, is not development oriented.

Mr Speaker, I beg to move.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!
________

HOUSE IN COMMITTEE

[THE CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES in the
Chair]

SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATES NO. 1 OF 2006

VOTE 01/01 – (Office of the President – State House – K1,207,419,459).

Vote 01/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 02/01 – (Office of the Vice-President – K10,563,525,458).

Dr Scott: Madam Chairperson, I would like an explanation on this …

Mr Lubinda: On a point of order, Madam Chairperson?

Madam Chairperson: A point of order is raised.

Mr Lubinda: Madam Chairperson, I do not like doing this, especially, on my good friend, Dr Scott, but I wonder whether Dr Scott is in order to raise questions on Supplementary Expenditure when it has not been subjected to scrutiny by the Estimates Committee as is provided for at Clause 156(1) of the Standing Orders which reads:

“The Committee of Estimates shall:

(i) examine the Estimates and Excess Expenditure Appropriation Bill before it is subjected to debate in the House.’

 Therefore, is he in order?

Interruptions

Madam Chairperson: Order!

What we are doing now is considering Supplementary Estimates. We are not looking at the main Estimates. What we have referred to does not refer to the Supplementary Estimates. The Supplementary Estimates are scrutinised by the Committee of Supply of the Whole House.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam Chairperson, this amount has already been spent. This incurred as a result of increased travel expenses for the Office of the Vice-President.

I thank you, Madam.

Vote 02/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 02/04 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 02/05 – (Disaster Management and Mitigation Department – K3,000,000,000).

Mr Mukanga (Kantanshi): I would like to find out what major disasters …

Dr Machungwa: On a point of order, Madam Chairperson.

Madam Chairperson: Point of order is raised.

Dr Machungwa: Madam Chairperson, the Standing Orders Article 156(1) is very clear that the Committee on Estimates shall examine the Estimates and Excess Expenditure Appropriation Bill. I believe we are considering the Excess Expenditure.

Interruptions

Dr Machungwa: Yes, these Supplementary Estimates are Excess Expenditure. Are we in order to continue to debate this matter?

Madam Chairperson: Dr Machungwa, what we are looking at is not the Excess Expenditure Appropriation Bill. We are looking at Supplementary Estimates. The issues to deal with the Excess Expenditure will be considered together with the rest of the Budget. This time, we are looking at the Supplementary Estimates. That is what you have read means. It is not referring to the Supplementary Estimates but to the Excess Expenditure Appropriation Bill.

Mr Mukanga: Madam Chairperson, I would like to find out what major disasters forced this provision of expenditure amounting to K3 billion.

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam Chairperson, if the hon. Member of Parliament will remember, in 2005, we had a drought and that is one major disaster we had. This money went to pay outstanding expenditures which were incurred as a result of drought relief exercises.

I thank you, Madam.

Vote 02/05 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 03/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 05/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.
 
Vote 07/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 08/01  – (Cabinet Office – Office of the President – K2,500,000,000).

Mr Magande: Madam Chairperson, I beg to move an amendment on Head 08/01  – Office of the President – Human Resource and Administration Unit:

(i) Under 01 – Human Resources and Administration Unit, by the insertion of Programme: 02 – General Administration, Activity 011 – Public Affairs and Summit Meetings with a Budget Allocation of K29,000,000,000 and a supplementary amount of K3,000,000,000.

Amendment agreed to. Vote amended accordingly.

Vote 08/01, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 80/01 – (Cabinet Office – Office of the President- K2,5000,000,000).

Mr Magande: Madam Chairperson, I beg to move an amendment on Head 08/01 – Cabinet Office – Office of the President – Human Resource and Administration Unit

(ii)  Under 01 – Human Resource and Administration Unit, by the deletion of the Unit Totals and Totals of K800,000,000 and K2,500,000,000 respectively and the substitution therefor of K29,800,000,000.

Amendment agreed to. Vote amended accordingly.

Vote 08/01, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 11/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 13/02 – (Ministry of Energy and Water Development – Energy Department – K451,522,841).

Dr Scott (Lusaka Central): Madam Chairperson, on the 31st of last month, the hon; Minister of Mines and Minerals Development answered questions following his Ministerial Statement. When I asked how much the explorations in the North-Western Province had cost, he said that, Sir, I have been informed that we spent about U S $18,000. The total amount showing both the original Estimates and the Supplementary amount is about K700,000,000 which is approximately ten to twelve times larger than the sum which he informed us about. Is it his mistake or is it in the Estimates?

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam Chairperson, the additional K113,137,118 was specifically for the issue which was covered by the hon. Minister in this House. There were other explorations which were carried out, but the US $18,000 which is reflected at K113,137,118 is what the hon. Minister referred to and not the amount in total.

I thank you, Madam.

Vote 13/02 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 13/03 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 15/05 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 15/07 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 17/23 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 17/36 – (Mission Abroad – Paris – K14,000,000,000).

Mr D. Mwila (Chipili): Madam Chairperson, on Head 36, sub-head 02 - Human Resource and Administration Unit – K14,000,000,000, since the Government is not a profit-making institution, why was this money not spent?

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam Chairperson, the budget is just an estimation. If the missions under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs make savings because the money has not been spent, I do not really see how someone can ask for an explanation. The money has not been spent instead, it has been saved. We will take it where it is needed. The money was not spent because we budgeted for it under Other Emoluments. At the time the Paris Mission requested for a new residence, we found that we had savings under that category of Other Emoluments and got that money and sent it to Paris for them to buy a house instead of coming here to ask for additional money.

I thank you, Madam Chairperson.

Mr Lubinda: Madam Chairperson, I have two queries on this Vote. Firstly, the supplementary amount required is K14 billion. According to this report, that K14 billion is supposed to be financed by the savings that are enumerated there. I wonder why the total savings is K6 billion less than the supplementary expenditure for that Vote.

Secondly, purchasing of office block or accommodation is capital expenditure. What is being reflected here is recurrent cost under the heading ‘Office Administration’. Could the Hon. Minister tell us exactly what kind of office administration in Paris enabled them or demanded that they spend K14 billion of people’s money? What kind of administration is that?

Mr Magande: Madam Chairperson, Hon. Lubinda will recall that when we discussed the Estimates, this was the nomenclature used by the ministry and it included items that they were going to get an office. So, the definition of Office Administration there includes acquiring a property. We do not change the terms half way once we agree on them.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Magande: The issue on the difference between savings and what we spent, is simply that, at the time we were asked to raise K14 billion, we could only raise K8 billion. Therefore, we requested the spending ministry to look around in its own Head, where they could find money to top up the difference. It is not always that when a spending institution asks us for money, we ask them to raise the total of that as savings because some of the operations may suffer.

I thank you, Madam.

Mr C. K. B Banda (Chasefu): Madam Chairperson, can the Hon. Minister confirm whether it is not true that money to pay for the balance for the purchase of the house came from Lusaka?

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam, the money did not come from Lusaka.

I thank you, Madam.

Vote 17/36 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 18/01 – (Judiciary – Headquarters - K3,003,653,201).

Dr Scott (Lusaka Central): Madam Chairperson, on this page, there is another very good example of why, if the Standing Orders do not already say so, they should be changed to say that this scale of expenditure should be scrutinised properly by a suitably equipped Committee.

Interruptions

Dr Scott: I see that there is an amendment which has been moved, but that will take the Other Financial Restructuring up from K57 billion something to K97 billion which is in the range of US$30 million. It is a huge amount of money and is suddenly called Other Financial Restructuring. I wonder if the Hon. Minister could tell us how many helicopters and stuff he has included in here, please.

Hon. Government Members: Aah!

Mr Tetamashimba: Which helicopters?

Interruptions

Madam Chairperson: Dr Scott, which item are you referring to? We are on Head 18 – Judiciary.

Dr Scott: Madam Chairperson, it is on Programme 24 – Recapitalisation, Investments and Government Institutions (PRP) 2, Activity 003 – Other Financial Restructuring.

Interruptions

Hon. Government Members: We have not reached there!

Madam Chairperson: We are now on page 11.

Dr Scott: I apologise, Madam Chairperson.

Interruptions

Madam Chairperson: Order! Order!

Vote 18/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 18/21 – (Local Court – Southern Province – K1,123,000,000).

Mr Mukanga (Kantanshi): Madam Chairperson, I would like to find out whether it is procedural to have a supplementary budget allocation where there is no indication. Is it procedural?

Mr Lubinda: It is not!

Mr Magande: Madam Chairperson, if the allocation was removed, we do not remove it to show that there was nothing provided. So, it is procedural that you can still leave the title in anticipation of putting in money. In particular, …

Mr Lubinda: K1.00!

Mr Magande: Unless if the money you anticipate to spend and that particular project has been running. Now, the moneys under here, Madam Chairperson, were moneys that were released in 2005. We did not allocate anything this year. And the money was in the account at the end of the year. Since it was capital money, we did not draw it out. It was sterilised in the account of the Judiciary and so, they started spending it this year. Therefore, we had to maintain that title in order for them to spend money which was a carry over from 2005.

I thank you, Madam.

Interruptions

Vote 18/21 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 18/26 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 21/01 – (Loans and Investment – Ministry of Finance and National Planning – K72,971,180,351).

Mr Magande: Madam Chairperson, in our co-operative way, Hon. Lubinda was going to make the amendment.

Laughter

Mr Magande: Madam Chairperson, I beg to move that Programme 01 Loans and Investment – Ministry of Finance and National Planning

(i) On page 12, Under 01 Loans and Investment, Programme: 24 Recapitalisation, Investments and Government Institutions (PRP, Activity 003 Other Financial Restructuring, by the deletion of the Supplementary Amount of K57,182,547,031 and the substitution therefor of K97,182,547,031.

(ii) On page 12, Under 01 Loans and investment, by the deletion of the Unit Total and Total under the Supplementary Amount column of K64,575,880,351 and K72,971,180,351 respectively and the substitution therefor of K104,575880,351 and K112,971,180,351.

(iii) On page 12, Under 02 Road Management Unit, Programme: 07 Techno-Economic Feasibility Studies and Designs, by the deletion of Activity 005 Pedicle Road and the substitution therefor of 027 Construction of UNZA Footbridge – Great East Road.

I thank you.

Dr Machungwa (Luapula): Madam Chairperson, on Sub-head 02, Programme 07, Activity 005 – Pedicle Road – K1,000,000,000, I object to the amendment on page 12, under 02 Road Management Unit, Programme: 07 Techno-Economic Feasibility Studies and Designs, by the deletion of Activity 005 Pedicle Road and the substitution therefor of 027 Construction of UNZA Footbridge – Great East Road.

Madam Chairperson, this amount of K1 billion was, in fact, voted for by this House and the hon. Members who were here will recall that this amount was drawn from funds allocated to some roads in the Luapula Province. However, because hon. Members of the House from Luapula felt that it was important that K1 billion be expended on that project, the Pedicle Road, that amount was put there.

Now, can the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning explain why funds that were meant to be used in Luapula and which the hon. Members from Luapula and this whole House approved that they go to the Pedicle Road have been moved to Feasibility Studies at UNZA. We object to this.

Mr Magande: Madam Chairperson, I would like to assure Hon. Dr Machungwa that the money that we budgeted for under the Pedicle Road has not been tampered with. What happened is that when we were basically preparing the supplementary estimates, the officer put the Pedicle Road when they meant the UNZA Bridge. Therefore, if you referred to the Budget, the money for the Pedicle Road is still there, but we had to provide an additional amount of K1 billion for the UNZA Bridge because it was not fully funded. This is not removal of the Pedicle Road money, but a matter of changing the Pedicle Road to UNZA Bridge.

I thank you.

Mr Mooya (Moomba): Madam Chairperson, I would like to know if we are now going to have a bridge because the earlier estimate of K800 million around June, 2006 did not give us a bridge. Is this the final figure and we are going to have a bridge?

Mr Magande: Madam Chairperson, I am not an engineer like Hon. Mooya, but what I see there is that we will have a bridge, but when I do not know. I have been told that with an addition of K1 billion, the bridge will be completed. However, from what I read in the newspapers, the university students are already complaining about the design. They want something more posh than just what is there. We will have a bridge, but I do not know how long it is going to take.

I thank you.

Mr Lubinda: Madam Chairperson, on Programme 24, Activity 003 – K57,182,545,031, I would like to find out what it is that necessitated the increase to the allocation of Other Financial Restructuring from K80,908,505,669 initially to K137 billion and secondly, what necessitated this amendment to increase the amount from K80 billion through K137 billion and now to K177 billion on a Poverty Reduction Programme for Other Financial Restructuring. How many people’s lives have been improved as a result of this expenditure of this colossal amount of money? Given also that prior to that, is Activity 002 – Support for Fiscal Transparency 1, also something to do with financial restructuring, where a total of K2 billion has been gobbled, I would like to know what necessitated this and how many people have benefited from it because it is under poverty reduction.

Mr Magande: Madam Chairperson, I wish I had the actual meaning for Poverty Reduction Programme (PRP) in this context, but it cannot be poverty reduction. It is something else. Let me say that we have been trying to sort out the former parastatals, most of them, as you are aware, are limping. We are trying to clean up by, for example, paying off the employees of LINTCO and so we have money under there. Only recently, you heard the Government announce that we wanted to deal with the problem of INDENI by restructuring the shareholding. Once this is approved, we want to start the exercise of capitalising it so that we do not have the same perennial problems of lack of money and so on.

There are a good number of parastatals here and on some of them we are just paying terminal benefits. For Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia, we are giving them money to bring in raw materials for manufacturing fertiliser and this is all under this particular item.

I thank you.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Amendment agreed to. Vote 21/01 amended accordingly.

Vote 21/01, as amended,  ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 26/01 – (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services – K5,600,000,000)

Mr Simama (Kalulushi): Madam Chairperson, on Programme 08, Activity 010 – General Elections Coverage (Motor Vehicles, Video Equipment and Production Material – K5,600,000,000, I would like to find out how ZNBC spent the money because, during the campaigns, most of the programmes were covered by the donors and individual opposition parties. I would like to find out whether this money went to the advertisements that the MMD were running.

Interruptions

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam Chairperson, if the hon. Member wants some details, he can go to ZNBC and they will give him the details on how the money was spent. This money was actually spent for extra coverage of the elections and ZNBC can account for it.

 I thank you.

Vote 26/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

One hon. Member made a funny sound when saying the ayes.

Madam Deputy Speaker: Hon. Members, this House was actually allowed to debate this motion before it was referred to the Committee of Supply. It was made very clear that this is a very serious exercise. Therefore, I appeal to the hon. Members to respond correctly and not to make fun of what we are doing by making sounds that are not honourable and not dignifying to this House.

Vote 26/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 27/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 27/03 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 27/05 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 31/01 – (Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General – K1,595,766,667).

Mr Lubinda: Madam Chair, I would like to find out from the hon. Minister, what lead to this K1,595,766,667 increase on Subhead 01 – Human Resources and Administration Unit, Activity 001 - Constitution and Electoral Reforms, when, in fact, on page 3, Vote 05 – Electoral Commission, there was also an increase for elections of K23 billion. Could he explain to us what component of the Constitution Reforms was conducted to necessitate K1,595,766,667 excess expenditure?

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam, there is no correlation between the Electoral Commission of Zambia Vote and that under the Judiciary. This amount emanates from expenses that were incurred on the Constitution Review Commission (CRC).

Mr Lubinda: In 2005.

Mr Shakafuswa: Yes, in 2005, after balancing the papers, we found that there was an additional amount which needed to be paid and that is how we have outstanding amounts.

I thank you.

Vote 31/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 31/02 – (Attorney-General’s Chambers – K34,282,217,502).

Mr Mukanga: Madam Chair, I would like to find out what legal consultancy was hired to make a provision on Sub-head 04 – Civil Litigation Debt Collection and Prerogative of Mercy Unit - Activity 005 - K29,723,217,502.

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam, the Member of Parliament will realise that there are cases especially those handled by the Task Force in which we are being represented by lawyers outside this country and this expenditure was actually incurred to represent the Government in various cases which we have outside this country.

I thank you, Madam.

Hon. Government Member: Hear, hear!

Vote 31/02 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 37/01 – (Ministry of Finance and National Planning – K345,849,000,000).

The Minister of Finance and National Planning (Mr Magande): Madam Chair, I beg to move the following amendments on Vote 37/01 Ministry of Finance and National Planning–Human Resources and Administration as follows:

(i) on page 16, Under 01 Administration Unit, Programme: 03 Support to Institutions, by the insertion of Activity 04 Zambia Revenue Authority with a Budget Allocation of K127,000,000,000 and a supplementary amount of K5,000,000,000.

(ii) On page 16, Under 01 Administration Unit, by the deletion of the Unit Totals under Budget Allocation and supplementary amount columns of K6,365,286,644 and K301,080,000,000 respectively and the substitution therefor of K133,365,286,644 and K306,080,000,000.

(iii) On Page 16, by the deletion of the Totals under Budget Allocation and Supplementary Amount columns of K33,982,235,055 and K345,849,000,000 respectively and the substitution therefor of K160,982,235,055 and K350,849,000,000.

Mr E. C. Mwansa (Chifunabuli): Madam Chair, I have silently listened to what is going on. I would like the hon. Minister to explain why there are amendments on Supplementary Expenditure.

Mr Magande: Madam Chair, we are amending the Supplementary Expenditure because there numbers which are wrongly put and they do not add up. For instance, on the summary of totals on page 64, some of the amounts have to be deleted and substituted by other amounts. As the Estimates are, the figures do not balance. They only balance when the amendments are taken into account.

I thank you, Madam.

Vote 37/01, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 37/02 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 37/03 – (Ministry of Finance and National Planning – Planning and Economic Management Department – K5,000,000,000).

Dr Scott: Madam, may I have clarification on Subhead 04 - SOPU – Economic Sectors Unit, Programme 08 – National Development Plan (NDP) 2006 - 2010, Activity 005 – Launch and Dissemination of NDP 2006 -2010?

Such enormous increases of nearly 2,000 per cent from a quarter of a billion to K5 billion for dissemination workshops, presentations and power point presentations and advertisements in the paper is what we, the Patriotic Front (PF) hon. Members, are in this House to put an end to. This plan is supposed to be alleviating poverty.

Madam Deputy Speaker: Your question, Dr Scott?

Dr Scott: Whose poverty is being alleviated with this K5 billion?

Mr Magande: Madam, I do appreciate what Dr Scott has said. In PF, they do not believe in planning or even in plans.

Laughter

Mr Magande: Madam, we have spent the last eighteen months asking the Zambians to prepare a Fifth National Development Plan. Some of the hon. Members who were here before, like Hon. Lubinda, will recall that he attended meetings at the district level, as a councillor, at the provincial level, as a Member of Parliament and at the national level, as a representative of his constituency.

The plan is ready now and it needs to be launched. This plan is comprised of seventy-two district plans. Once it is approved and launched, we need to go to the seventy-two districts to take back their district plans and explain to them what procedures and systems we are going to implement in order for them to implement their plans.

Therefore, Dr Scott says that they are tired of meetings, unfortunately, in MMD, we believe in consultations. We had to go to the people with these plans and they have to indicate whether they agree with the plans.

I thank you, Madam.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Question put and agreed to.

Vote 37/03 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 37/05 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 37/07 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 37/10 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 46/01 – (Ministry of Health – Human Resource and Administration - K27,692,546,121).

Mr Simama (Kalulushi): Madam, I seek clarification on Subhead 01 – Personal Emoluments, Activity 005 – Other Emoluments. I would like to have a breakdown of how many patients enjoyed this overrun.

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam, a lot of patients enjoyed this because this money was actually spent on the Doctors’ Retention Scheme. If you recall, there was a scheme which was introduced to retain the doctors and prevent them from leaving the country. There was about K10 billion meant for that scheme for our doctors to have more incentives so that they could stay in the country. We also gave out about K5 billion for motor vehicles for doctors.

Therefore, a lot of patients enjoyed this through having more doctors in hospitals than having them go to foreign countries.

I thank you/

Mr Chimbaka (Bahati): Madam, one of the reasons doctors went on strike for was the issue concerning working conditions, emoluments and facilities. Is the hon. Minister implying that they also took care of facilities for doctors’ usage?

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam, I think we should not extend this debate. Let us look at the figures before us. If the hon. Member is concerned about improving the facilities, I would advise him to come and see us. In conjunction with the Ministry of Health, we can find money for that purpose because we are concerned about improving facilities. However, this money was spent for retaining doctors and for their motor vehicles.

I thank you, Madam.

Mr Lubinda: Madam, I seek clarification on Programme 02 – General Administration, Activity 006 – On-call Allowance – K9,858,545,602. This total amount is recorded here as a saving from different votes. If you scrutinise those votes, you will realise that, there is no saving here because the money was collected from Provincial Health offices. For example, K1.1 billion was collected from the Central Province on a Vote called Other Emoluments.

Other Emoluments in budgeting terms include On-Call Allowances. I would like to find out from the hon. Minister why he found it expedient to bring this figure and call it a supplementary expenditure, under On-Call Allowance which is voted for under Emoluments, and yet this House already allocated Other Emoluments in the various provinces of the same amount. What is the rationale behind this? Why do you play around with figures just to increase the volume of work that we do here?

Mr Magande: Madam, Hon. Lubinda could be right that we had provided money for On-Call Allowance for a doctor at Kabwata. The doctor was not there. Nobody called. When we wanted money to put under Headquarters to cater for a doctor who is working for Chavuma Hospital, we had to go to Kabwata and get the money which was not being used, put it under Headquarters and move it to Chavuma Hospital.

Laughter

Mr Magande: There was no additional money here. We were transferring money from where it had not been spent to where it was supposed to be spent.

Thank you, Madam.

Vote 46/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 46/02 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 46/06 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 51/01 – (Ministry of Communications and Transport – Headquarters – K3,600,000,000).

Mr Mukanga (Kantanshi): Madam, on Head 51/01, Sub-head 06 – Headquarters, Programme 06 – Planning Unit, Activity 007 – Construction of Chipata/Mchinji Railway Line – K3,600,000,000, will this money be enough to complete the construction of the railway line? Or are we going to have another provision in order to complete the project?

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam, on Head 51/01, Sub-head 06 – Headquarters, Programme 06 – Planning Unit, Activity 007 – Construction of Chipata/Mchinji Railway Line – K3,600,000,000, K3.6 billion would not complete this project. We will have to come back to the House with a budget line next year to make sure that the people of the Eastern Province have a railway line.

I thank you, Madam.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Vote 51/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 51/02 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 65/10 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 68/02 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 68/05 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 76/02 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 77/01 – (Ministry of Defence – Headquarters – K65,000,000,000).

Mr Chota (Lubansenshi): Madam, on Head 77/01, Sub-head 05, Programme 02 – Procurement and Supplies Unit, Activity 001 – Procurement and Supplies of Goods and Services – K65,000,000,000, what is the summary of the goods and services which were procured using this amount? Does this include the purchase of the helicopter?

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam, on Head 77/01, Sub-head 05, Programme 02 – Procurement and Supplies Unit, Activity 001 – Procurement and Supplies of Goods and Services – K65,000,000,000, this amount was spent on rations for the men in uniform in their operations bases.

Thank you, Madam.

Dr. Machungwa (Luapula): Madam, on Head 77/01, Sub-head 05, Programme 02 – Procurement and Supplies Unit, Activity 001 – Procurement and Supplies of Goods and Services – K65,000,000,000, the initial budgeted amount was K4.7 billion  and the excess supplement asked for is K65 billion which is equivalent to about US$16 million. We know that the entire Defence budget is about US$30 million. Is it possible that K65 billion could have been spent on rations? Will the hon. Minister tell us what this money is for?

Mr Magande: Madam, I wish to confirm that before we actually release this amount which will obviously go up to the end of the year, we asked for information. Whether we like it or not, just rations of the unit is as much as this. That is all I can say. There are soldiers who are at the borders. They have to be fed. When they go there to work for six months, we have to provide for their families behind. We have to provide accommodation. If they are senior officers, they have to be secured and there is a lot that goes into it. The hon. Member is trying to deliberately forget what he knows so well about these operations.

Thank you, Madam.

Hon. Government Members: He was there.

Mr L. J. Mulenga (Kwacha): Madam, on Head 77/01, Sub-head 05, Programme 02 – procurement and Supplies – Activity 001 – Procurement and Supplies of Goods and Services – K65,000,000,000, I know that K65 billion sounds nothing to him, but this amount of money, to me, is a lot of money. So, I demand that a further breakdown is given regarding this amount.

Mr Magande: Madam Chair, on Programme 02, Activity 001 – Procurement and Supplies of Goods and Services – K65,000,000,000, it seems the hon. Member wants to know how many bags of beans, rice and salt were bought. Unfortunately, I do not have that information right now, and I do not think I will be able to get it because when we were budgeting and explaining the item here, those details were given.

I thank you Madam.

Mr Kambwili (Roan): Madam Speaker, I would like to find out how long from the time of approving the Budget was this K4 billion used and how many months is the K65 billion to be used? I tend to understand that this is for rations. Does it mean that in the first quarter, there were no operations until now that we have soldiers at the borders?

Mr Magande: Madam Speaker, as Hon. Hachipuka brought to our attention, during the budgeting period, there are a lot of discussions that go into all this and one of the items if I may alert the other hon. Members who are new, like me, is that everybody thinks that defence and security is an item for the Government alone. This is an item that most of the other Members who have left the House were very keen to cut down. Unfortunately, security of a country is for all hon. Members of this House in their areas and not only those on your right side. Some of us have constituencies that border foreign countries where security is needed most.

Hon. PF Members: You have not answered the question!

Mr Magande: Madam, I have answered the question. The additional amount of K65 plus K4 billion, we hope is going to cover us up to the end of this year.

I thank you, Madam.

Vote 77/03 ordered to stand part of the Estimates

Vote 78/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates

Vote 80/46 ordered to stand part of the Estimates

VOTE 85/01 – (Human Resources and Administration Unit – K895,926,256).

Mr Chimumbwa (Nchanga): Madam Chair, may I have a clarification on Programme 10, Activity 001 – HIV/AIDS Awareness – K30,782,055. While I agree with Supplementary Estimates, I find it a difficult to understand why the Ministry of Lands should be the only ministry to talk about HIV/AIDS and yet the Ministry of Health is doing exactly the same.

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam Chair, on Programme 10, Activity 001 – HIV/AIDS Awareness – K30,782,055, these funds which we are talking about were released in 2005, but the expenditure was carried forward in 2006. Therefore, it could be that funds were appropriated in 2005, but now since they have to be spent this year, we are just regularising it.

I thank you, Madam.

Vote 85/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 85/02 – (Lands and Deeds Department – K67,140,106).

Mr Lubinda (Kabwata): Madam Chair, the Ministry of Lands is the only ministry that has an increase in Personal Emoluments in the Supplementary Expenditure. Is this as a result of the ministry taking over the responsibility of allocating land in Lusaka that you have to increase salaries of staff at the Ministry of Lands?

Mr Magande: Madam Chair, Hon. Lubinda is a member of the Lusaka City Council. Perhaps he can raise this issue where it can be dealt with better rather than here at Parliament.

Madam Chair, I appreciated the question raised by the hon. Member for Nchanga, Hon. Chimumbwa, on HIV/AIDS. May I explain that in this year’s Budget when you get to the Yellow Book, you will discover that there is a huge amount of money for HIV/AIDS under the Ministry of Health. This year, we decided to remove the HIV/AIDS Vote from all the ministries and put it in a centralised place under the Ministry of Health. This is why, so far, you have not seen it. The reason this particular item was retained is that the Ministry of Lands still had some balance left; and, in order for them to use that money, they had to indicate this particular vote.

Therefore, I thought that since HIV/AIDS is a serious issue, I would need to give that explanation. It is not that we have neglected it; but it is in the Budget with over K300 billion, but under the Ministry of Health.

I thank you, Madam.

Vote 85/02 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 85/03 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 85/04 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 87 – (Anti-Corruption Commission – K3,516,335,000).

Mr Mwenya (Nkana): Madam Chairperson, I noted, with interest, on Programme 15 – Anti-Corruption House Car Park – Item 001 – Fencing the Car-Park amounting to K1,640,000,000 and that is an addition to the budgeted K300 million. I would like clarification from the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning whether this was a stainless steel fence or a gold-plated car fence.

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam Chairperson, actually, the Anti-Corruption Commission moved its offices from Independence Avenue to Kulima Tower. As you know, the Anti-Corruption Commission keep valuables for people, which they use as evidence in courts. To secure those properties, they need a strong car park. The car park is open to be viewed. If you happen to go there, you will be able to ascertain what material was used and you will be satisfied to see what material was used. You will also be able to agree that this amount was rightly spent.

I thank you, Sir.

Vote 87/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 89/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 89/04 – (Agriculture Department – K4,710,000,000).

Mr Muntanga (Kalomo): Madam Chairperson, I need clarification on Programme 18, 001, Support to Large Scale Irrigated Commercial and Irrigation Estate amounting to K3,710,000,000. In what form was this given? Was it a loan?

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam Chairperson, that is the established Irrigation Fund.

I thank you, Madam.

Vote 89/04 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 89/05 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 89/06 – (Veterinary and Livestock Development Department – K4,000,000,000).

Mr Muntanga: Madam Chairperson, I would like to find out if this K2,000,000,000 is the one to be used on the rehabilitation of the vaccination plant at the Balmoral Research Institute. I would also like to know if we have already started constructing the Cordon Line in the Western Province.

Mr Magande: Madam Chairperson, all the money that is indicated under the supplementary Estimates under Agriculture is part of the US$18 million that I said was a saving from the Multi-lateral Debt Relief. The Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives has introduced them as new programmes. Since the money is there, we hope that they have begun constructing the cordon line because they have the money. They had also indicated that they wanted to resuscitate vaccine production at Balmoral Research Institute. We hope this is going to be used for that purpose.

I thank you, Madam.

Vote 89/06 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 89/08 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

VOTE 89/09 – (Agri-business and Marketing Department – K90,000,000,000).

Mr L. J. Mulenga: Madam Chairperson, I have no objection to this figure, but I would just want to have …

Madam Chairperson: Order!

Business was suspended from 1815 hours until 1830 hours.

Mr L. J. Mulenga (Kwacha): Madam Chairman, before business was suspended, I indicated earlier on that I did not want to dispute this figure. Therefore, I actually support it. Having said that, I would like to have an assurance from the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning that this Activity-Based Budgeting Supplementary allocation will be enough to purchase all the maize and come January, 2007, we will not have to talk about this.

Mr Shakafuswa: Madam Chairman, if this supplementary estimate will not be enough, we will come back to this House to request for some more, but, in the main time, we have provided for K90 million to see us through.

I thank you, Sir.

Vote 92/09 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 92/16 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 92/17 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 92/25 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 92/40 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 92/41 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 92/42 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 93/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 93/08 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 94/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 94/08 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 94/16 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 94/19 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 94/24 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 94/36 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 94/42 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 95/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 95/05 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 95/09 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 95/16 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 95/35 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 95/37 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 95/40 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 95/52 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 96/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 96/08 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 96/09 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 96/16 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 96/19 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 96/42 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 98/01 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

Vote 98/42 ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

SUMMARY TOTALS ON PAGE 64

Mr Magande: Mr Chairman, I beg to move an amendment on the Summary Totals on page 64, by the deletion of the following summary amounts: K963,547,781,248; K882,812,546,901 and K514,985,673,188; and the substitution therefor of the following amounts: K1,011,547,781,248; K930,812,546,901 and K562,985,673,188 respectively.

Amendment agreed to. Summary Totals on Page 64, amended accordingly.

Summary Totals on Page 64, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Estimates.

______

HOUSE RESUMED

[MR SPEAKER in the Chair]

Supplementary Estimates No. 1 of 2006 reported and approved with amendments.

Report adopted.

Question put and agreed to and Mr Speaker appointed the Minister of Finance and National Planning to be a Committee of one to bring the necessary Bill to give effect hereto at a later date.

MOTION

MOTION OF THANKS

(Debate resumed)

Mr L. J. Mulenga (Kwacha): Mr Speaker, when the debate adjourned yesterday, I was congratulating my President Mr Michael Chilufya Sata on having given me an opportunity to stand on the Patriotic Front ticket. I am thankful that the people of Kwacha Constituency gave me the mandate to stand before this august House.

Mr Speaker, I am overwhelmed by the support of the people of Kwacha Constituency especially the learned ones from the Copperbelt University (CBU). I render them my commitment and promise not to let them down.

Hon. Patriotic Front Members: Hear, hear!

Mr L. J. Mulenga: Mr Speaker, the victory was overwhelming. I did not only get support from the CBU, but also from the townships and the people of Nkana East, bashimaini, the miners, the people who have contributed enormously to the growth of this economy, and I salute them.

Mr Speaker, I would like to turn to the Address of His Excellency the President, Mr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, SC. In his address, he cited the cause of unity and reconciliation in the nation. I agree with that because we need unity and reconciliation in this nation. In agreeing with that, I would like to quote the Constitution of the Republic of Zambia on page 19:

‘We, the people of Zambia by our representatives assembled in our Parliament, having solemnly resolved to maintain Zambia as a sovereign democratic Republic; determined to uphold and exercise our inherent and inviolable right, as a people, to decide, appoint, proclaim the means and style to govern ourselves, 
recognise the equal worth of men and women …

Mr Mschili crossed the Floor.

Hon. Members: Order!

Mr L.J. Mulenga: ‘… in their rights to participate and freely determine and build a political, economical and social system of their own free choice; pledge to ourselves that we shall ensure that the State shall respect the rights and dignity of human family, uphold the laws of the State and conduct the affairs of the State in such a manner as to preserve, develop and utilise its resources for this and future generations.’.

Mr Speaker, I would like to appeal to all hon. Members seated in this august House that Zambia belongs to Zambians, it does not belong to MMD, PF or to UDA, but to the Zambian people. As we sit here, we must understand that we are representing the people who are very important and critical to this nation and they are the ones who have brought us here. And when we are here, let us not forget them. When you sit on the other side, do not forget that one day, you will also come and sit here. So when you are that side, you must remember that there are people who watch over us.

Mr Speaker, whatever we do, we must do to the best interest of the people. The reason I am saying this is that yester night, Hon. Mulongoti wanted to intimidate hon. Members of this House.

Interruptions

Mr L. J. Mulenga: Mr Speaker, that is not parliamentary. He must understand that he is just a nominated Member and not elected. Therefore, he must respect, and I emphasise, he must respect the Zambian people who have enabled him to be here and it is also by the mercy of His Excellency that he is here. This mercy can be removed, but I can only be removed by the people.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr L. J. Mulenga: Mr Speaker, in this nation what we want is to leave a better Zambia behind. A Zambia that we shall be proud of, and can we this time around be serious and begin to look at the people’s interest …

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr L. J. Mulenga: … so that even as they sing the National Anthem, they shall truly say ‘proud and free’.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr L. J. Mulenga: Mr Speaker, let me go to the subject of transparency and accountability. The monies that are collected on behalf of the people are not Government or MMD or PF money, but the people’s …

Hon. Opposition Members: Hammer!

Mr L. J. Mulenga: … and when it is collected, it must be to the benefit of the people. They need that money.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr L. J. Mulenga: Our people need reconciliation. Their reconciliation, basically, should be based on poverty. The Government must reconcile with the people on poverty issues. The Government must reconcile the issue of unemployment levels for the people. It must reconcile the issue of street kids and the problem of retirees. When you go back to bed think about this. It is important to be in Government and it is a privilege. Here where we are seated there are people who were in Government, but we are with them here.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr L. J. Mulenga: The same can apply to you. So, when you are in Government, it is a privilege that we have entrusted you the responsibility firstly, to collect our resources and when you collect our resources, we urge you to use those resources equitably to all the constituencies, be it Opposition or ruling party. They are all the people of this country.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr L. J. Mulenga: They need development and I would urge, Mr Speaker, that the Ministry of Finance and National Planning in their budgeting process also begin to take care of constituencies. Zambia is not only Lusaka or Kitwe, but also includes Lupososhi. They also need development in that area, and, therefore, when money is collected, it must be accounted for to the last ngwee. You must account for money to the last ngwee because one day, we shall all be held responsible.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr L. J. Mulenga: Mr Speaker, with regard to taxation, it is a form in which governments all over the world raise money and no doubt about that, but taxation must have a human face. For a very long time, the few working people in this nation have been over burdened with high levels of taxation. It is my appeal that this time around, they listen to the suffering of the workers. The workers also want to live decent lives. They do not want to be over burdened with high tax. The hon. Minister responsible must take that into account because people need disposable income and on this matter, I am asking the Ministry of Finance and National Planning to broaden the tax base. All eligible tax payers must be brought into the net after all, it is their country.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr L. J. Mulenga: It is their nation. They too must contribute because if you ask the workers, …

Hon. Government Members: Drink water.

Mr L. J. Mulenga: I do not need water.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hammer Mudala.

Mr L. J. Mulenga: … the people who contribute are the suffering workers and they do not even enjoy the benefit of the Government schools, Government hospitals instead, they are compelled to take their children to private schools. I am appealing to the Government to finance Government institutions, schools and health facilities adequately so that I too may take my child to a Government school.

Hon. Opposition Member: Hear, hear!

Mr L. J. Mulenga: I do not need to be flown to South Africa when I am sick. I would like to go to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH). Can we create facilities at UTH and at my clinic in Kitwe?. That is all we are asking. We are not asking for much, but we that people must be accountable for their actions because one day, where we are seated that is where they will come.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr L. J. Mulenga: Kitwe town, Mr Speaker, is suffocating. There is no room for expansion. The only area left for expansion in my constituency is across the Kafue River. There have been a lot of people, a lot of consultants who have come in to see how they can establish a bridge across the Kafue River so that we can access that land. The previous Member of Parliament, during the time of campaign, brought in experts to look at that bridge, I hope that will be taken care of in this Budget.

Mr Speaker, water and sanitation, in my constituency, is a very critical issue. A lot of houses, forty-two years after independence have no toilet …

Laughter

Mr L. J. Mulenga: … whatsoever.

Hon. Government Members: Aah!

Mr L. J. Mulenga: In a township that was developed forty-two years ago, there are no toilets. We need toilets. The people in shanty compounds also need help because in those areas, come rainy season, we shall have diseases like cholera and everything. Can we fight, Mr Speaker, through the hon. Minister of Local Government and Housing to organise her people, rather than just breaking the houses and chasing which is inhuman? They too are Zambian people. Let us find a human face in resolving their problems.

In conclusion, Mr Speaker, I appeal to this august House even as we sit, even as we are in this House, to think and reflect seriously what is it that we want to leave to Mother Zambia.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr L. J. Mulenga: How do we want to leave this Zambia? How do we want to be remembered after we are dead?

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Two hon. Members passed near Mr L. J. Mulenga.

Mr L. J. Mulenga: I thank you, Sir.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Speaker: Before debate continues, I wish to guide the House on the following:

(a) All Members of Parliament in this House, both elected and nominated, enjoy equal status and privileges;

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Speaker: (b) Hon. Members are reminded not to cut across or blur the vision between the Chair and the hon. Member speaking. While the hon. Member for Kwacha was on the Floor, two hon. Members cut across the Floor. We went through this. Do not do it.

Any further debate?

The Deputy Minister for Eastern Province (Mr Nkhata): Mr Speaker, I thank you for giving me an opportunity to give my maiden speech before this House. Allow me to join other hon. Members of this august House who have spoken in congratulating you on your re-election as Speaker of this House. I would like also to congratulate the Deputy Speaker, who is the first female Deputy Speaker, in the history of our Mother Zambia.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nkhata: She scooped the seat unopposed. Let me also congratulate my dear elder brother Hon. Mkhondo Lungu on having been elected as Deputy Chairman of Committees for the Whole House for the second time. This shows the confidence the hon. Members of the House have in him.

Mr Speaker, allow me, at this time, to thank my Party, the Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD) and His Excellency the President, Mr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, SC, for having adopted me to stand as their candidate in the just ended tripartite general elections where I emerged victorious.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nkhata: I wish to thank all electorates in Chama South Constituency who have shown confidence in both my Party and I in the just ended elections. May I thank the Opposition parties for making the race so competitive though I had warned Hon. Muntanga not to give me a candidate whom I could easily overrun.

Laughter

Mr Nkhata: Mr Speaker, I would like to salute all hon. Members of this House, including myself, for making it to Manda Hill. I would like to advise the hon. Members who have come for the first time to be receptive to the advice from the guards and that be prepared to learn how to go about their duties as people’s representatives from their respective constituencies.

Sir, it is important for all of us to learn that in order to perform effectively, efficiently and with confidence, individual Members of Parliament will need constant help from each other and, indeed, from your good office.

Mr Speaker, I now wish to salute the Republican President Mr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, SC, for his inspiring address that he delivered during the Official Opening of the Tenth National Assembly.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nkhata: Sir, with regard to education, it provides the critical key necessary for the development of any nation. I am glad to mention to this House that the Government is constructing a very good day high school in Chama South at Chief Chikwa’s Headquarters. This high school has been built to solve problems associated with expensive transport for children who go to distant schools such as Lundazi, Chipata and Chama Boarding High School. This school is not the only one built by the Ministry of Education. It has also fully rehabilitated Chifunda Basic Secondary Schools in Chama South Constituency.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nkhata: Mr Speaker, I am happy that the Government has embarked on serious programmes of employing teachers for all needy schools in the country. Through the President’s Address, the President informed the nation that, by the end of this year, the Government would have recruited 8,000 teachers. This is indeed, true because a good number of them have already been posted to many schools that had no teachers. This time around, the Government will employ teachers equal to the number of vacancies. Most rural schools will benefit from this programme because only remote and those schools that have no teachers have vacancies that will accommodate newly-recruited teachers.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nkhata: Mr Speaker, the people of the Eastern Province acknowledged the good will of President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, SC. They have seen that he is a President who has the drive for the development of this country. Allow me to mention that a good number of high and middle basic schools have been constructed in various quarters of the Eastern Province.

Sir, the Government has also rehabilitated a number of schools throughout the province, through ZAMSIF and other organisations that have helped in providing good infrastructure for the children and teachers across the province. Some of the examples of newly-built schools, include, Kafumbwe Technical High Boarding School in Milanzi Constituency in Katete District. This is where the current Member of Parliament for Milanzi Constituency was saying there is no development. Meanwhile, he has received the best school that looks like a college in other countries.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nkhata: In addition to this, there is Lumezi Technical High Boarding School in Lumezi Constituency, Lundazi District. I am glad that the people of Lumezi have welcomed the gesture from the Government by providing and voting for a Member of Parliament from the Government wing.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nkhata: Mr Speaker, Chikwa Day High School in Chama South has also been constructed through Government coffers. Right now, the school is about to be completed.

Mr Speaker, considering what the Government is doing in terms of putting up good infrastructure for schools in this country, I wish it a long stay so that it can continue building in the remaining areas of our province.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nkhata: Sir, the people of Eastern Province would like to thank the State President for free education that his Government is providing to school going children in this country. At least equal opportunity is now given to all children in need of education.

Mr Speaker, as regards agriculture, every Zambian knows that the economy of Eastern Province mainly depends on agriculture. The New Deal Government has scored a number of successes in agriculture in the Eastern Province by good guidance of production of farm produce. There is high production of cash crops such as cotton and tobacco. A good number of ginneries have been erected in the various districts of Petauke, Sinda, Katete, Chipata and Lundazi. All these ginneries process cotton and, in due course, employment opportunities have been created for the people.

Sir, the production of maize crop has also increased tremendously because of timely provision of farming inputs to our farmers. I am glad to report that farming inputs such as fertiliser and maize seed have already started arriving in the province.

Mr Speaker, the Government, after looking at the just ended marketing season, will extend its market centres closer to our farmers so that the problems of maize marketing should come to an end. The Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives is currently working on modalities with the Food Reserve Agency so as to strengthen good methods of marketing system of all crops.

Sir, the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives recognises the importance of farmers training institutions. The Government has decided to embark on the construction and rehabilitation of the centres. It is constructing a new Farmers Training Centre in Nyimba District. It has rehabilitated a good number of institutions currently, in Chama District and Lundazi.

Mr Speaker, some may wonder why the people of the Eastern Province have voted for President Mwanawasa. It is not for any other reason other than that they have seen that he is taking them to a proper destination in agriculture.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nkhata: Sir, what the President is doing is by far different from what other leaders that he took over the Government from did. They abandoned agriculture in the Eastern Province. They sold all the co-operative buildings that we were using not forgetting our co-operative bank building that was sold at a give away price.
Owing to the team that was running the Government prior to President Mwanawasa, the people of the Eastern Province said no to some of the leaders of other parties who wanted to ascend to higher offices of authority for they were part of the destruction of agriculture and marketing system in our province.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nkhata: The people of the Eastern Province do not change anyhow, but change when they see development.

Mr Speaker, I am glad to note that the President has recognised the importance of having good roads in the country. In this regard, I wish to thank the Government for the funds it has provided for the rehabilitation of part of the Great East Road from Katete to Chipata. On this note, I wish to request the hon. Minister of Works and Supply and the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning to facilitate the quick release of the remaining funds to end the doubts about MMD Government efficiency of the doubting Thomases who have remained in the Eastern Province. Allow me to mention that Sable Construction is currently on site and working on the road. The road has taken time to be completed because of the slow pace at which funds are released. I appeal to  the Government to take measures to have this road completed in good time so that people start using it.

Mr Speaker, in the same vein, let me mention that the people of Chama District are happy at the development the Government is initiating. They wish to thank the Government for providing them with a very good gravel road from Lundazi to Chama which Hon. Tetamashimba inspected.

Hon Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nkhata: The China Geo Engineering Co-operation which was engaged to work on the road by the Government has completed in good time. One is able to drive at 120 kilometres per hour. The people of Chama wish the Government to extend its road rehabilitation to other roads that are in bad state in the district.

Mr Speaker, allow me to talk about the Bailey Bridge on the Luangwa River and the famous Chama/Matumbo Road. The Government has already taken the components on site to be used for the construction of the Bailey Bridge. The Government transported these components in July this year. It now remains with the Ministry of Finance and National Planning to release K1 billion indicated in the Yellow Book for this project to take off. The construction of this bridge will make the people of Chama happier because their dream would have come true.

Sir, for any country to develop, there must be a better communication system. I am glad to mention that the MMD New Deal Government has provided an open ground to companies that are willing to conduct business in communication. Companies such as Celtel, MTN and ZAMTEL are committed seriously throughout the province and Chama in particular. Since independence, districts such as Chama, Nyimba and Mambwe Boma have never had Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation television provision. I am happy to report that the three districts that did not have this provision are now able to watch television and are also able to use cell phones. This was not there before. Long live Mwanawasa; long live MMD for the good programmes of the people in this nation.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nkhata: Mr Speaker, the Chipata/Mchinji Railway Line is being worked on by the Government. The Government would like to ensure that this project is completed so as to match with the goodwill of our dear brothers in Malawi and Mozambique. So far, more new rails have arrived on site and work is on course.

Mr Speaker, on mining, I would like to agree with the President’s Address that Zambia is becoming a copper mini-giant it once used to be. This is demonstrated by the additional copper mines opened in the North-Western Province. The Government has also re-opened many of the old mines that were closed on the Copperbelt by the previous Government.

Sir, allow me to talk about the oil exploration that is taking place in the country. I believe there was a similar activity of oil exploration that took place in 1988 to early 1989 in Chama District. I am pleased that the Government has started taking serious steps to work on oil exploration again. Our hopes are going to be revived for the Chama people concerning the oil mines that were started and later abandoned by the Kaunda Regime.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nkhata: Mr Speaker, land is very important to every nation. Without land, no country can be called a nation. I wish to thank the President for having appointed Hon. Nyirongo back to the Ministry of Lands so that she can complete the work that she had started. She is a very hard working hon. Minister. The programme of the border demarcation between Zambia and Malawi will now accelerate with her coming back. As Provincial Minister, I will encourager her to ensure that the Zambia-Malawi Border is demarcated. Malawians take the borderline issue very seriously. They are in a hurry to acquire as much land as they can from Zambian. Therefore, it needs a committed hon. Minister like her to handle the border matter expeditiously.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nkhata: Zambia has lost quite substantial land in Chief Tembwe in Chama District at Kaloza area.

On the Rural Electrification Programme, the New Deal Government is concerned about the programme of providing power to rural areas. Through the Rural Electrification Programme, the MMD Government has managed to connect Lundazi District with hydro-power from the Malawian Grid in Mzimba District of Malawi as well as Mambwe District. Nyimba was also recently connected to hydro-power from Petauke District. Areas such as Chiwoko National Service in Katete District, Chief Ndake Palace in Nyimba, Lumezi Hospital from Lundazi Boma, Kafumbwe Technical High School from Katete Boma are all beneficiaries of the good programme of the MMD New Deal Government. In Chama District, the Zambia Electricity Supply Company has already brought the poles on site. They will soon be connected to Mbalachanda on the Malawian-Grid.

The Government, through the Ministry of Energy and Water Development, has also managed to sink more than 600 boreholes across the province over the years the MMD has been in power. Chama South Constituency received more than forty boreholes which were sunk in some parts of the constituency the last time boreholes were driled. However, there is still need to sink more boreholes in the area so that our people can access more and safer drinking water.

In conclusion, I wish to mention to this august House that this Government means well for its people. Many countries across the world are admiring the manner in which Zambians are administering themselves. They are wondering on the unity that we have exhibited throughout the country. The peace that is prevailing in this country is being hailed by many countries of the world. I, therefore, wish to appeal to all loving Zambians to maintain this peace that we are enjoying in this country. Those who might be thinking of bringing confusion in order to ascend to power and govern this country must desist such thoughts. I reject them in the name of Jesus Christ.

Mr Speaker, with these few remarks, I thank you.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu (Bweengwa): Mr Speaker, allow me firstly to thank the Almighty God for giving me this opportunity to serve the people of Bweengwa in the Tenth National Assembly. Secondly, I wish to wholeheartedly thank the people of Bweengwa for electing me as their Member of Parliament. They gave me an overwhelming 87 per cent of the votes cast and I think that was the highest countrywide.

Hon. Members: Ah.

Mr Hamududu: Thirdly, may I thank my party for adopting and supporting me as their parliamentary candidate for Bweengwa Constituency. I promise to remain loyal to my party, its leadership and programmes. I believe we have a duty to enrich our democracy and provide the much needed checks and balances for the good of all Zambians. I will do that without fear or favour.

Mr Hamududu : Mr Speaker, may I also take this opportunity to pay tribute to the founding President of the UPND, the late Anderson Kambela Mazoka for his immense contribution in many ways for this country. He has gone as one of the best Presidents Zambia never had. May His Soul Rest In Peace.

Hon. UPND Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, allow me to thank a rising star of our generation, Mr Hakainde Hichilema, for accepting to leave his prestigious business assignments at an early age to answer the call of national service. That, indeed, is very rare.

Hon. UPND Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, may I join other hon. Members in debating the President’s Address to this august House.

Mr Speaker, I am a firm believer in the economic empowerment of indigenous Zambians and, therefore, I support the President’s indication of establishing the Citizens’ Economic Empowerment Fund and the Youth Empowerment Fund.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, our indigenous Zambians face difficulties in accessing reasonable and affordable capital to start up or expand their business ventures, especially after the collapse of the many financing initiatives that existed in the past.

I hope the initiatives indicated by his Excellency, the President will be a reality as soon as possible. I will passionately support such ideas during my stay here.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, we should, at all costs, avoid a situation where indigenous Zambians are reduced to mere spectators in the economic arena of their own country due to lack of access to capital.

Mr Speaker, let me turn to Bweengwa Constituency. It is a great honour for me to be a Member of Parliament for Bweengwa Constituency whose first Member of Parliament was the old lion, the late Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula at the time, the constituency was called Monze West. The late old lion hailed from Namwala, but since Monze West was a focal point of Zambian politics then, the people of Monze West asked him to be their Member of Parliament there, instead of Namwala where he came from.

Hon. UPND Member: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: It was in Bweengwa at Samu lya Moomba where cattle donations were made, to enable Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula and his then Secretary Dr. Kenneth David Kaunda to travel to London to negotiate Zambia’s independence.

Hon. UPND Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, I am a young person, but wearing very big political shoes to match any challenge required of me as Member of Parliament, due to the various lectures I received from the remnants of our liberation struggle in my constituency from the time I was a little boy.

Mr Speaker, I am a product of the wisdom of Bweengwa Constituency, the genesis of Zambian politics.

Hon. UPND Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, they have told me that Bweengwa Constituency, from the time of the liberation struggle to date, has a nationalist approach to Zambian politics. My address to this august House will, therefore, be very nationalistic and original.

Mr Speaker, in Bweengwa, we also face the usual problems you have heard in this House. Allow me to mention only one that is critical, at the moment, and this is the Monze-Nico, Nteme-Munyenze Road.

This is basically one road. The total distance of this road network is just 110 kilometres, 70 kilometres from Monze to Nico and 40 kilometres from Nteme to Munyenze. This road network constructed in 1975 has been in a very poor state for a long time, due to lack of maintenance during the last fifteen years.

The Monze-Nico Road forms part of the Namwala-Monze Road which is the shortest and busiest route from Namwala to Lusaka for transportation of goods such as cattle to Lusaka and Copperbelt which are the biggest markets for beef and, as you all know, it is the major commodity from our areas. We are from the cattle country.

Hon. UPND Member: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: The Monze-Munyenze Road is also the route leading to Lochinivar National Park (popularly known as ‘the bird watcher’s paradise). The bad state of this road is seriously affecting the flow of tourists to this fascinating national park, therefore, depriving the local people and Zambia as a whole, of some tourism revenues.

Mr Speaker, the aforementioned roads are of high economic value and their urgent repair should be made a top priority.

Mr Speaker, the people of Bweengwa and Namwala want this road repaired and tarred in 2007. I mention the people of Namwala because they pass through Bweengwa to connect to Monze on their way to Lusaka, the economic hub of Zambia. The people of Namwala and Bweengwa have been waiting to be connected to Lusaka by a tarmac road from the time Zambia attained independence.

Mr Speaker, experience has taught us that extremist approaches to economic management are dangerous. Neither the socialist nor the capitalist systems are good for Zambia.

Mr Speaker, Zambia would do much better if she adhereed to a truly mixed economy, where the private sector and the Government are fully involved so that where the private cannot, the Government takes care.

Mr Speaker, allow me to also take note of Zambia’s courageous resolve to follow the International Monetary Fund/WORLD BANK conditionalities to reach the HIPC Completion Point that meant cancellation of our foreign debt. I must say, this is commendable, as the debt burden was a cancer to the economy of Zambia.

Sir, may I also take note of the reintroduction of development planning. I hope we will begin to see milestones in our economic development. I salute the New Deal Administration on this score.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, I hope Zambia will not fail in her second chance to realise economic development.

Mr Speaker, some of the key factors that we must emphasise for our economy to grow are:

(a) emphasis on Science and technology that has already been expounded;

(b) highly trained labour force. We need to invest in training of a critical mass of skilled workers to effectively drive all our segments of the economy. In this training process, I would like to appeal to those in the education ministry to include entrepreneurial training so as to empower our graduates at all levels to create their own jobs;

Mr Speaker, I suggest that entrepreneurship and basic economics be taught from Grade 1 up to University to solve long-term unemployment situation in Zambia, where we will have a critical mass of Zambians trained to create work and wealth.

(c)  investment in infrastructure such as roads, railways, telecommunications that will facilitate economic activities. Our Government should deliberately create conditions and incentives for capital investments. Let us avail funds for indigenous Zambians to invest in big capital projects; and

(b) investment in exploration for new resources, let us continue to explore for new resources.

Mr Speaker, at the same time, where possible let us consider going into joint exploration ventures with our neighbours such as Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Angola. These countries are highly involved in exploration and, therefore, sharing experiences would be helpful.

Hon. UDA Member: Hanjika!

Mr Hamududu: Zambia carries a very proud and heroic history in the Southern Africa Development Community (SABC) and Africa as a whole for its immense contribution for the liberation struggle of Southern Africa and indeed, Africa as a whole.

I am very happy to note that some of Zambia’s great diplomats during the liberation struggle of Southern Africa are here in this House. I salute them.

Hon. UPND Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, however, I am not impressed with the way Zambia positioned itself in the post-liberation period. Zambia has failed to take full advantage of the excellent friendship created for economic co-operation through mutually beneficial joint ventures with those countries. Instead, Zambia has been turned into a dumping ground for cheap products from our southern neighbours, depriving Zambia of industrialisation and consequently, worsening our prospects to accelerate employment creation, since we have been reduced to mere traders.

I am sure our sister Government would more than welcome proposals for mutual joint venture initiatives. Let us consider such more seriously.

Mr Speaker, while we invite foreign investors in our country, let us also deliberately create incentives for our people to invest outside Zambia. Otherwise, we risk being marginalised in this global competition.

Mr Speaker, I wish to ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to seriously attach importance in promoting economic diplomacy in its foreign policy by selecting qualified and experienced trade attaches in Zambia’s foreign missions, who will strike business contacts for Zambians.

Hon. UPND Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, memberships to the SADC, COMESA, African Union (AU) and others are good, but not enough. In addition to our memberships, let us devise our own unique international trade strategies at a large scale.

Mr Speaker, Zambia’s annual population growth rate after the 2000 Census stands at 2.4 per cent while our preliminary GDP growth for 2006 stands at 5.6 per cent. This relationship shows that an increasing population is eroding our economic gains.

Mr Speaker, for us to realise real economic growth, it is suggested by experts that the economy should be growing at three times higher than the population growth.

Sir, Zambia now has what we call a young population. If you go to the compound, you will find a lot of young people. This kind of situation is putting severe pressure on the Government to expand social services such as clinics and schools to a level where it might be impossible to afford.

HON. UDA Members: Quality!

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, I would like to suggest that we consider adopting measures to control population growth in our country if we are to improve the living conditions of our people in the long run.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Speaker, we have a problem in this country. Our towns are dirty and town planning has generally been abandoned, either due to corruption or outright incompetence. Our towns appear as if there was a war in Zambia. No wonder we are failing to attract serious investors. Only traders will come to most of our towns.

Mr Speaker, I would like to suggest that the Ministry of Local Government and Housing demand strategic plans from all towns across the country setting out how each and every town should be cleaned up and modernised. Buildings must be painted, streets cleaned, modern public toilets constructed, clean and spacious bus stops established and vendors put in designated areas. Let councils be empowered to collect every levy and enforce regulatory by-laws. Those who cannot pay levies must go to the village where we do not pay levies. It is unfair for this generation to hand over such towns to our children.

Mr Speaker, there is an urgent need to change the unproductive nature of Zambian politics, where some politicians have reduced themselves to mere reactionaries.

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, Zambians want solutions to their problems and not continuous political commentaries we hear day in and day out throughout the five years.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

 Mr Hamududu: Zambians are tired of the current political pollution prevailing in the country.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, let us discuss policy options together with those in power and not how to win elections as if elections are held every year.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, politics is not about getting into power or maintaining power, but about service to the people.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Laughter

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, for the next five years, the President of the Republic of Zambia is Mr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, SC.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: Mr Speaker, let us help him and his Government succeed. Encourage him when he is doing the right things and correct him by providing alternative programmes when he is wrong.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Hamududu: Sir, that is the role of constructive opposition politics.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Speaker, we, the young people, who are exposed and travelled are sick and tired of Zambian politics.

Mr Hamududu: Sir, the success of President Mwanawasa’s leadership in the next five years is a success for Zambians. Therefore, all patriotic Zambians ought to give him constructive support.

Mr Speaker, I thank you.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Chitonge (Mwansabombwe): Mr Speaker, let me add my modest voice to those of my colleagues who earlier complimented you for your unanimous election to the leadership of this august House. The people of Mwansabombwe, commonly known as ‘Abena Mwata’, are confident that this trust lavishly vested in you, will be put to the great advantage and service the people of Zambia, by your allowing free speech in the House, for by its nature, Parliament is the only place where every grievance must be heightened with a loftiest voice and every cause, loudly pleaded.

Hon. PF Member: Hear, hear!

Mr Chitonge: In this vein and for this special reason, I offered my services to the people of Mwansabombwe, to come and do what that onerous task demands, namely; to make their voice clearly heard and without fear.

Sir, issues of the State ought to be debated impersonally and without rancour and animosity, since the State cannot be said to be personal property or a preserve of an individual.

Hon. PF Members: Hear, hear! Hammer!

Mr Chitonge: Whatever is said or questioned by the public must enlist or evoke explanation and that is the essence of Parliament.

Sir, I am afraid that Zambia appears to the have drifted from the course it set for itself with the advent of the multi-partism in 1991 when the call for unity of purpose was heeded with eagerness and seriousness and confidence crowned it all. Can this be said of the situation presently prevailing in the land? If the answer is no what explanation can we give?

Mr Speaker, I see a dark cloud hovering in the skies of Zambia and a deep sense of anxiety taking its grip in a most disquieting manner.

Hon. PF Members: Hear, hear! Hammer! Hammer!

Mr Chitonge: Coming soon after the tripartite elections, this atmosphere that has polluted life in Zambia must surely trace its genesis in what must have happened before, during and after the elections.

Hon. PF Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Chitonge: We are all a product of this state of affairs and inwardly, we should be in the know of how this has come about.

Mr Speaker, I understand the President has appointed a Three-man Committee to find out why and how his party received a bashing in Lusaka, the Copperbelt and the two Northern provinces.

Hon. PF Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Chitonge: It is not only in these provinces where hot air presupposing an impending political volcano is blowing quietly and unnoticed.

Hon. PF Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Chitonge: My modest opinion is that this Three-man Committee must extend its mission to the rest of the country because a pandemic is never localised.

Hon. PF Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Chitonge: This public enquiry must be open and free from State intimidation.

Hon. PF Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Chitonge: The matter of great concern and worry is the one of governance. It is the responsibility of this House to ensure that the institutions that guarantee liberty and freedom to citizens function as by law designed and not by whims of political dictates of an individual, person or any group of people.

Hon. PF Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Chitonge: Mr Speaker, although we, in this august House, happen to come from different parts of the country, we all have, but one mission and that mission is to build our country and its people in all the nine provinces whose aspirations we must satisfy and fulfill.

Hon. Patriotic Front Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Chitonge: For that reason, any injustice in one part of the country must be considered an injustice to all our people in the country at large. And any lack of development in one area of the country that may be a source of resentment and political friction should draw the attention of all of us so that we correct any imbalance.

Mr Speaker, this is so because strictly speaking, we are all national leaders, although for ease of political management of our country we represent individual constituencies. It is, therefore, imperative to look at our country in its entirety so that we can make reasonable comparisons. Our people want development in every corner of the country and, for this reason, peace and nothing, but genuine peace is a prerequisite. There cannot be development of political, economic and social advancement of our people if there is no genuine peace.

Mr Speaker, only our country in its entirety and not our single constituencies is our common stage on which all our actions shall spring to justify and satisfy the confidence of the electorate placed in us. The country does not enjoy genuine peace that is has comes as a result of development. The post election environment is polluted with bitterness and animosity. The atmosphere feels uncertain. Many people on the streets, in markets and on buses and in many areas of human activity openly express their dissatisfaction generally with the just ended Parliamentary and Presidential elections.

Interruptions

Mr Chitonge: Mr Speaker, it is no exaggeration of mine to tell this august House that I hear almost daily people loudly and clearly saying that they have been robbed. I do not know what they have lost, but it is important for the Government to find out why there is tension all around us.

Hon. Government Members: Around you!

Interruptions

Mr Chitonge: Mr Speaker, if this sense of loss by the masses is allowed to continue, it can breed discontent. We cannot ignore what is happening so openly in many parts of the country because people matter. They are in the majority and their hands lay power to govern. Their general good will is key to our continued existence as they are worthy representatives. No part of the country and no issue that affect the people must be regarded as too trivial to demand our outmost attention.

Mr Speaker, the people out there are wide-awake and keenly following proceedings in this august House. We are, therefore, responsible if not vulnerable to them. This reminds me of a 14th Century proverb in Europe that says:

 ‘The higher the monkey climbs, the more he shows his tail’

Mr Speaker, the people are watching and seeing how we represent them for we owe our jobs to them and we must strive to tell the truth and nothing, but the truth at all times. John Knox said:

 ‘One man plus the truth makes the majority’.

Mr Speaker: Order!

(Debate adjourned)

__________

The House adjourned at 1955 hours until 0900 hours on Friday, 10th November, 2006.