Zambian Parliamentary Committee on Estimates on Monday expressed shock at revelations that former vice-president Lupando Mwape incurred unconstitutional expenditure amounting to 10 billion kwacha (2.9 million U.S. dollars) from his "extraordinary" travels during campaigns for the 2006 general elections, according to The Post.
The State House incurred unconstitutional expenditure amounting to 553 million kwacha in 2006 as a result of payments towards unforeseeable events that required attention, the local newspaper reported Wednesday.
Explaining the Office of the Vice-President (OVP) supplementary expenditure for the year ended December 31, 2006, OVP permanent secretary for administration Austin Sichinga said the 10,563, 525,456 kwacha was realized because President Levy Mwanawasa had delegated part of his job to Mwape.
"You will recall that this was a year of an election. The president dissolved the government, the parliament and cabinet as well, except for the Office of the Vice-President and the President's Office," Sichinga said. "This created an extraordinary travel movements for his honor."
Sichinga explained that the election also culminated into the appointment of a new vice-president.
"I had, therefore, to prepare the office and Government House for the new Vice-President. These extraordinary activities exceeded our budget projection and, therefore, I had to ask for supplementary budget," Sichinga said.
He said the Parliamentary Business Department of the OVP incurred unconstitutional expenditure of 28,319,028.00 kwacha in the year under review because of an increase in the number of Action Taken reports that needed to be submitted.
Sichinga said the number of parliamentary committees had increased from nine to 21 and consequently the reports to the committee had become bulky.
He said that the drought experienced in most parts of the country in 2005 and 2006 caused the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) to overspend by 3 billion kwacha.
Some parliament members were surprised at the amount of the money and asked Sichinga to explain, according to the newspaper. (1U.S. dollar = 3,400 kwacha)
Source:Xinhua
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