No more lies Lipenga, PPM calls for commission of inquiry
After Minister of Finance Ken Lipenga conceded that Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) cooked up figures on revenue collection to impress Malawians that the zero-deficit budget was on track, the Peoples Progressive Movement (PPM) of Mark Katsonga has joined Malawians in telling the Minister to stop lying and honourably resign.
In a statement released on Thursday, PPM said it is dismayed just like all Malawians on the revelation made by Lipenga that he lied to the nation on the K15 Billion borrowing by MRA.
“It is even more disappointing that the Minister continues to tell the nation that he had no knowledge at the time that MRA had made the borrowing.PPM would like to put it to the Minister that his denial cannot be justified and therefore it can only be taken to be another lie,” reads the statement in part.
During the mid year term budget review in Parliament , Lipenga, a PhD holder in linguistics but entrusted with the management of the country’s finances as minister painted a colourful picture on the country’s resources that Malawi was recovering from its economic woes which started over two years ago.
The PPM leadership observed that K15 Billion is a huge sum of money and that the issue at that time was big but the whole Minister and DPP legislators defended it in parliament.
“The government of the time refused to investigate it and left it to Honorable Nnesa alone to prove his allegation amid booing and shouts by all the DPP members of Parliament.” continues the statement.”
Meanwhile, PPM has called on President Joyce Banda to constitute a Commission of Inquiry for the nation to know the truth about this matter.
“There is certainly a lot to this which has to come out for Malawians to take our government seriously as it has so far demonstrated. To allow unobstructed inquiry ,all ministers who were members of the previous government cabinet and are still in cabinet today should honourably resign or be sacked because Malawians cannot trust them any more to handle issue of national interest,” the statement said.
But Lipenga has refused to resign, saying the accusations are politically motivated by opponents to force him out of office.
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