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{
    "id": 1222194,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1222194/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 262,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker for giving me this opportunity. Let me also congratulate the 12th Parliament for establishing this Committee. In as much as I may not agree with the current Leader of the Majority Party who was very instrumental in bringing up this issue, this has become very important especially in debt management. Hon. Temporary Speaker, over the years, the problem we have had is that we were not managing our debt and this was not part of our financial process, particularly the budget- making process. Therefore, in principle, we have a committee dealing with debt management now and we have also linked this to parliamentary process so that the elected representatives have a say on when we are borrowing. We will always borrow. There is no problem with borrowing. However, we must be clear on what we are borrowing for and Parliament must have a say in it. The other important principle is that we have linked the debt management process to the budget-making process. This is extremely important because borrowing occurs to fill the budget deficit. Therefore, both processes must be linked. I congratulate this Committee because it has also brought recommendations on policy, and financial measures that we need to take. This Report is not just for this financial year’s Budget but it must be implemented and be part of our process from now on. I see that the Chairperson of this Committee is here and I congratulate him. Just know that you have given us a strategy, not only for this year’s Budget but that must be followed throughout. It is extremely important that we have linked it to the budget-making process and particularly, before the Budget Policy Statement. This is so that when we are at the BPS and the strategies, we will input what we need to borrow, how this debt will be managed and how the past debts have been managed. Hon. Temporary Speaker, in principle and for those reasons, I support this. But more importantly we need to look at the solutions they have provided. They have talked of the single Treasury account. The most important recommendation is the stoppage of local and domestic borrowing. Domestic borrowing crowds out the businesspeople who borrow to generate money. We then have the Government competing with businesspeople and we cannot grow our economy like that. We also realised that the MDAs and others are saving money with banks. So, we are borrowing our own money. Hon. Ichung’wah linked this to State capture. Whether he is listening or not, State capture is already happening. He may not be aware about how this happens but we are seeing it going on very seamlessly. State capture starts with appointing people who are beholden to you, those who will not follow the law and those who are waiting for instructions to head institutions. Once you have that, State capture is on. This is free advice to them. They should realise that as we talk about it, they are already indulging in it. I agree with that recommendation. We should not borrow locally. This crowds out… The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}