Govt announced austerity is waste of time – Sinkamba

Green Party president Peter Sinkamba has described as a sheer waste of time austerity measures announced by government.

Mr Sinkamba’s comment comes in the wake of recent revelations that government has bought a fleet of brand new state-of-art Land Cruiser VX V8 cars for top officials worth millions of Kwacha.

He says such austerity measures cannot work under the present organizational regime where each government wing has its own capital budgeting and expenditure scheme which is detached from centralized oversight.

Mr. Sinkamba further states that austerity measures cannot work in a government system where capital procurement is decentralized and uncoordinated.

He states that a government that introduces austerity reforms must act like an octopus to succeed wholesomely.

Meanwhile, Mr. Sinkamba says when time comes for the disposal of government vehicles as part of the austerity reforms, such a disposal should be by public auction not closed sale.

He says there is need not only for transparency and accountability in the sale of the vehicles, but also maximization of benefits to the nation at large and not to individuals.