WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2007-08-14 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
Blantyre – Malawi’s parliament reconvened on Monday after many adjournments but stalled on the budget debate as the opposition accused the government of “siphoning out” money without parliamentary approval.
“Someone in government has been siphoning out money without authority… we need to regularise the use of funds,” George Mtafu of the former ruling party said when parliament finally reconvened.
Mtafu, who for many years was the country’s only neurosurgeon, said the state was “breaking laws with impunity”.
“What kind of democracy are we following?” he asked.
The opposition, stating its readiness to debate and pass the already delayed budget, said it wanted parliament to regulate the use of funds drawn from August 1 through a financial resolution.
“Let’s regularise expenditure… if we are breaking the law, let’s correct the situation,” John Tembo, leader of the opposition Malawi Congress Party, said in remarks broadcast on state radio.
Former finance minister Friday Jumbe said: “We are breaking the law, should we continue to break the law… Let us follow the law to the book.”
Finance Minister Goodalll Gondwe, a former director of the International Monetray Fund (IMF), said by not debating the budget “we are shooting ourselves more and more on the foot”.
“Time is not on our side. We need to move expediously working for the common good of the people. We need the budget,” Gondwe said.
The country has been in a political impasse since last month because the opposition has been demanding to debate the sacking of 41 MPs who crossed carpet to join the minority government.
The Supreme Court last week ordered the opposition to end a month-long boycott of parliament after it turned down an opposition injunction to stop the legislature from debating the budget.
Malawi’s opposition, which commands 105 of the parliament’s 193 seats, had been campaigning for the expulsion of the MPs who crossed the floor to join the government of President Bingu wa Mutharika before discussing the budget.
Mutharika and the opposition have been at loggerheads for weeks in a row sparked by a court ruling which allowed the parliamentary speaker to sack the defecting MPs.
The government announced early this month that it would push ahead with its spending plans despite lawmakers’ refusal to debate the budget. – Sapa-AFP
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>