Parliament rises

BY MACDONALD THOM & FAITH KAMTAMBE:

Parliament Friday finished its two-month meeting, with a number of bills passed on the last day.

The climax of the meeting, which President Peter Mutharika opened on May 4 2018, was, however, the passing of the K1.455 trillion 201/2019 budget last week.

However, on the last day of the meeting there was a desperate attempt by the MPs to make up for the time they lost during the week they were passing budgetary allocations.

It was a week the House was characterised by House’s early adjournments as the MPs pressed Minister of Finance, Goodall Gondwe, to improve their benefits.

There were also days the MPs appeared not to have business to transact.

And yesterday, instead of rising at 12:30pm, the House continued for at least one and half hours.

During that time Chairperson of the Social and Community Affairs Committee of Parliament, Richard Chimwendo Banda, tabled a report on Consultative Meetings with the NGO Board. The report was, however, not debated as it was circulated the same day.

The House also opened a

debate on the Legal Education and Legal Practitioners Bill. Though only one MP contributed to a debate on the report, the MPs eventually adopted it and handled other stages of the Bill before it was passed.

The MPs had earlier on passed such bills as Customs and Excise (Amendment), Value Added Tax (Amendment) and Taxation (Amendment).

They also passed loan authorisation bills for Blantyre City By-pass Road Project and Chileka International Airport project.

In his winding up statement, Leader of the House, Kondwani Nankhumwa, highlighted some of the key issues in the budget. Some of them are K2 billion allocation for training of civil servants to PhD level, K5 billion for youth Forestry Programme and K20 billion for the purchase of maize.

He also highlighted the K31.5 billion that will be used for next year’s tripartite election.

“It is an excellent budget that responds to the needs of Malawians,” Nankhumwa said.

He urged the MPs to continue serving their constituents well.

“I urge all of you not lose focus about the work Malawians elected us for,” he said.

Speaker Richard Msowoya thanked the members for their cooperation during the meeting.

“On behalf of the first deputy Speaker and Second Deputy Speaker, and the entire secretariat, I would like thank you for the cooperation,” Msowoya said.