MALAWIS finance minister has presented a 42.3-billion kwacha ($566-million) budget, and slammed the nation’s loss-making parastatals. Finance Minister Mathews Chikaonda told parliament in the administrative capital Lilongwe that the budget for 2001-02 fiscal year was aimed at achieving economic stability to spur growth and reduce poverty. “A total expenditure of 42.3 billion (kwacha) is projected, which will represent 32% of the gross domestic product,” Chikaonda said in his two-hour speech. The loss-making parastatals, whose boards of directors are ruling party loyalists appointed by Muluzi, showed lack of financial discipline to control and contain expenditure, Chikaonda said. Top parastatals — including the grain marketing board, the Malawi Development Corporation, agencies for housing, power, and telecommunications, as well as the national airline — are “a burden to the government budget who have to stop overspending and must carry their own weight,” he said. – AFP
Friday 22, 2001