State President Dr Lazarus Chakwera says the nominated people for his cabinet will be consulted first before appointment.
“As the clock struck midnight, I concluded my second day in office. I am happy to report that Dr. Chilima and I have made great progress in the formulation of Cabinet. As per procedure, nominees for cabinet will be consulted before appointment, following which they will still be at liberty to reconsider accepting the extent or form of their involvement in the event that certain exigencies of public office demand a change thereof, with assurance of no remonstration or recrimination on my part. I will be announcing the rest of the Cabinet members very soon,” he wrote on his Facebook page last night.
Dr Chakwera says his administration is ready to deliver its promises as it has been shown in the partial budget presented in the August House by Finance Minister Felix Mlusu.
“Additionally, on this second day, my Administration presented a budget to The People, whose representatives have duly passed it. This budget covers the necessary functions of government for the next four months, during which time we will work on a full budget,”
“Key deliverables in the budget are a preliminary fertilizer subsidy, giving 3.5 million smallholder farmers access to fertilizer at K4, 495 as a precursor to our promise of a universal subsidy that is in the pipeline, increase of the minimum wage to K50, 000 and increase of the tax-free threshold to K100, 000 and increase of the allocation to loan schemes like MEDF to 40 billion, with an additional 35 billion in the pipeline,” he says.
Chakwera says he spent the second day in office receiving reports from various state institutions regarding the status of their operations, which will inform the steps he will soon be taking to ensure that all institutions have the wherewithal to address the anomalies and malpractices within them.
Meanwhile , President Lazarus Chakwera’s administration has suspended the awarding of government contracts with immediate effect.
