Malawi Congress Party (MCP) President and Leader of Opposition, Lazarus Chakwera, has proposed that in order for Members of Parliament (MPs) to significantly scrutinise the national budget, they should be involved in pre-budget consultations.
In the current setup, a Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development holds pre-budget consultations with different stakeholders including members of the academia and the civil society usually two months before presenting his budget statement in Parliament.
The meetings are also open to every individual including the lawmakers, but records show that most of them seldom partake of the discussions.
And according to Chakwera, allowing the MPs to specifically get involved in the pre-budget consultations will make it easier for them to understand different aspects of the fiscal plan including where allocations are going.
He said this in an interview following concerns that the MPs were not given enough time to scrutinise the K1.149 trillion 2016/17 national budget which was passed on Thursday last week.
Said Chakwera: “Such concerns that members were not given ample time to scrutinise the budget are genuine, especially looking at the passion with which they contributed to debate. But time will never be enough for everything.
“Perhaps next time, [MPs] should have specific opportunities during the pre-budget consultations so that they provide suggestions on what they want to be done.”
The proposal was also once made by MCP’s Lilongwe Mapuyu South MP, Joseph Njobvuyalema, who argued that MPs wouldn’t be busy asking government to undertake some very small projects in their constituencies if they were involved in pre-budget consultations.
“We would provide requests on what needs to be done like construction of school blocks or health centres during the consultations and this could be easily taken into consideration in the budget,” Njobvuyalema had said.
In an interview yesterday, Ministry of Finance spokesperson Nations Msowoya, said Chakwera’s proposal makes sense.
“Of course, MPs are not barred from attending the pre-budget consultations which we do hold in all the regions. That is why we publicise them in newspapers, but having special meetings with the MPs does make sense,” said Msowoya.
During debate on different allocations in the 2016/17 fiscal blueprint, some MPs, mostly from the opposition benches, accused government of curtailing discussions when they were still eager to scrutinise the votes.
Leave a Reply