JB refuses to trim cabinet

Malawi President Joyce Banda has dismissed calls for her to trim her ‘bloated’ cabinet as one of the austerity measures.

This is one of the issues raised in a six point petition by the organizers of planned January 17 demonstrations under the leadership of the consumers association of Malawi (CAMA).

They asked the president to among other conditions, reduce her 35 member cabinet, reduce foreign and local trips, and sell the presidential jet.

The organizers claim these are some of the factors that have worsened the country’s economy.

CAMA has ruled out any dialogue arguing the president should just act on the issues raised.

However, speaking on ZBS, when she answered questions from Malawians, President Banda argued that reducing cabinet was not an option now as some ministries and departments had suffered in the past when she tried to combine them to reduce the number of ministers.

She cited the ministry of energy and mining which has been since been split into two, saying it was not feasible for one minister to run its affairs.

She says trimming the cabinet would lead to the under-performance of most ministries.

Walk the talk

Economists, development partners have on several occasion advised the government to lead by example and follow through plans and policies that it put in place to address the current economic challenges.

This comes after reports have emerged that the State House has spent over 2.6 billion Kwacha, which is 800 million kwacha more than its original budget of 1.8 billion kwacha.

Speaking to capital fm, economic commentator Collen Kalua says the government should operate on a cash budget system to ensure fixed amount for a specific sector which if exhausted should not be replenished.

However, the state house Press office has trashed the reports of over spending.

Presidential Press secretary Steve Nhlane in a statement said that the reports are false and based on hearsay adding that the truth of the matter was that state house was allocated 1.8 billion kwacha in the current budget.

He said this was lower than the 2.5 billion of last year and that out of the 1.8 billion they have paid an outstanding debt of 400m inherited from the previous administration