By Vincent Gunde
A Malawi Congress Party (MCP) diehard of Mvera in Dowa district Mr. Rodgers Kamphangala, says he has learnt with shock and dismay revelations from Minister of Finance Hon. Joseph Mwanamvekha that State House of President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera spent the entire K67 billion allocated to last for a year was spent in six months only, and went on to borrow more.
Kamphangala said these revelations have proved that the country is sailing in stagnant water requiring each and every one to contribute, the MCP and Dr. Lazarus Chakwera did not enter government for servant leadership but for honeymoon.
He said going by calculations of K67 billion, President Chakwera alone was spending K372 million per day making one wonder what this huge money was for while hospitals are running without essential drugs and this alone has claimed lives of people who could have been productive citizens for the country’s development.
Presenting the budget in Parliament, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Joseph Mwanamvekha, said the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) spent 100 percent of the total allocated budget while the Office of the Vice President spent 94 percent.
Kamphangala has rated the MCP government of President Chakwera as the worst the country has ever seen since the dawn of multiparty politics and democracy in 1994 saying State House revelations have answered the question why the country is poor when its politicians are the richest.
“Malawi is not poor by birth, politicians are the ones that have made this country poor, they promise transformation on paper while on the ground, there is zero development,” he said.
Kamphangala has asked President Chakwera to account for this K67 billion saying if the MCP government was for the people, some Malawians could not have time to eat wild bushes (chitedze) as food for their survival.
Counsel Silvester Ayuba James has questioned the MCP that what if they had used such an amount of K67 billion every year to erect Mombera University in Mzimba and Orton Chirwa International Airport in Nkhatabay, saying Malawians could have voted for the MCP into government.
Ayuba James has argued that if the huge money was spent on cushioning citizens from inflation by subsidizing certain fundamental imports, the MCP could not have been brought down making President Chakwera losing miserably.
“The problem with the MCP is that doors are closed to people with special wisdom to give constructive advices to President Chakwera while those perceived as dunderheads are in the forefront are running government,” he said.
