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Government has released K12.4 billion in January to finance public service delivery with the wage bill for civil servants gabbling a huge portion of the funds.
Of this amount, K3.6 billion went to the public service wage bill whilst K3.5 billion was spent on debt service for both domestic and external and other liabilities, according to Finance and National Planning Minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane.
“In line with the government’s commitment to reduce indebtedness, a sum of K3 billion was released towards the payment of both domestic debt and external debt (multilaterals).
“Furthermore, the Treasury released K464 million towards dismantling of arrears to suppliers of goods, services and fuel. The government also spent K3.6 billion on costs relating to the wage bill for various public service workers,” Musokotwane said in the 2023 January budget releases.
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He said government would continue to build on the gains made in public resource management and economic governance.
One of Government’s focus areas, Musokotwane said, was to enhance commitment to implementation of programmes and ensure that the budget performance was not impaired.
“We all need to be diligent and steadfast in executing our tasks – delays in programme implementation have an impact on our transformation agenda. We have to deal with that this year so that we attain substantial developmental progress by attaining our budget targets” he said.
Musokotwane also said resources for transfers, subsidies and social benefits amounted to K2.4 billion.
Out of the K2.4 billion released towards transfers and subsidies, notable expenditure items included K635.6 million for the Public Service Pension Fund (PSPF) financing gap and grant.
The minister explained that this was aimed at sustaining the payment of pension dues to retired public service workers.
Musokotwane stated that the Treasury released K2.4 billion for implementation of various government programmes and general operations.
“Of this amount, notable expenditure items included: K4 million for the land titling project.
This is a key intervention in ensuring that citizens are empowered through officially titled land and K436.7 million for the procurement of drugs, medical supplies and equipment,” he said.
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The Treasury also released a sum of K524.8 million towards capital projects of which, K303.6 million was spent on road infrastructure, while the balance of K221.2 million went towards water, education and health infrastructure projects.
It also realised K217.9 million for the secondary schools and skills development bursaries component under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
This was for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds who have qualified to go to boarding secondary schools and for skills development for youths who wish to obtain long-term life skills.
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