No politics in passing budget votes, urges PP’s Chikalimba

Peoples Party (PP) Chief Whip John Chikalimba has urged parliamentarians to put politics aside as they scrutinize and pass the various allocations in the 2018-2019 National Budget.

He made the remarks in Parliament as he was responding to the National Budget presented before the lawmakers on May 18, 2018 by Finance Minister.

“Mr. Speaker Sir, this is not the time to be focusing on being politically correct at the expense of the livelihood of people and the struggling Malawians,” he said.

Chikalimba said the House need to pass only those votes that truly have the bearing of changing the country and its people after 54 years of independence.

He said this being the first ever Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) III implementation budget; members need to focus on approving only those allocations that are in line with the programme based budgeting principals of results and outcomes orientations

The Chief Whip urged the parliamentarians to ensure the budget passed must not have what he claimed could be fool proof allocations.

According to him, the PP has a number of areas it intends to look on to:

“The first issue we as the PP are not going to leave unattended to is the issue of electricity. This is a critical issue that remains one of the biggest threats ever experienced in this country…” Chikalimba pointed out.

The Zomba Changalume representative later told journalists that said it is high time the opposition side should be able to work hand in hand with government in order to best serve the interests of the rural masses.

Minister of information Nicholas Dausi said government has an open door for new ideas.

“They must come with alternative plans or ways of solving the problems. They can do it here in parliament because it is here where we discuss and see the way forward.”

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