Civic leaders in Chipata have adopted a proposed 40 million Kwacha 2017 budget for Chipata Municipal Council.
This was after a tough debate among civic leaders during a full council meeting held in the Council Chamber on Friday.
Some civic leaders observed that they was not given enough time to study the budget.
And some civic leaders disagreed with a decision to allocate 540 thousand Kwacha towards sports saying the money should be used for other developmental projects because the council can easily get sponsorship for sports from elsewhere.
But Chipata Mayor, Sinoya Mwale said the Local Authority was behind time because the budget has to be submitted to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing soon.
Mr. Mwale added that it is the mandate of the council to support sporting activities adding that there was no need to divert funds allocated to sports to other projects.
This left the civic leaders with no choice but to adopt the proposed budget, which will now be submitted to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing for approval.
And Director of Finance Committee, Edward Sakala says within the 40 million Kwacha proposed budget, 10.5 million Kwacha is for Service Provision Component while 1.4 million Kwacha is for Local Development Fund per constituency, translating to about 40 per cent of the total anticipated expenditure.
Mr. Sakala who is also M’kowe Ward Councilor says the capital expenditure for 2017 has been budgeted at 1.9 million Kwacha.
He added that a total of 48.8 million Kwacha Ward Development Fund has been reserved for all the 22 wards translating to 1.1 million Kwacha per ward.