• There is appetite for extravagance from the public officers.
• Some of them love luxury cars.
• Move away from extravagance and focus on the common interest of bettering the lives of people.

President Hakainde Hichilema has challenged Heads of Quasi Government Institutions and Statutory Bodies to be spending on revenue generating items as opposed to spending on consumption and other wasteful related expenditure.
Speaking during a Special Meeting for Heads of Quasi Government Institutions and Statutory Bodies at Kenneth Kaunda Wing, Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka, President Hichilema observed that there is high appetite for extravagance among public officers who are spending on luxury vehicles at the expense of creating extra jobs for citizens.
The Head of States stressed the need for public officers to change the way they work by preventing public resources from going to waste and create extra jobs for Zambians unlike placing value in the wrong areas like having luxury vehicles.
“Spending on revenue generating items as opposed to spending on consumption and other wasteful related expenditure which does not generate revenue that will help us to unlock one other area of our economy and create a job. Just one extra job is good enough.”
“Some of you love luxury cars, how does that luxury car help to create a job? One of you are buying VXs every day, why can’t you hold back so that you save money because that is consumption. Our attitudes are wrong; we are placing value in the wrong places. I am observing, I see appetite for extravagance from the public officers, you want to travel first class, before you took a government job you could not even buy an economy ticket for yourself, all of a sudden you want to travel first class,” President Hichilema said.
He further urged the Heads of Quasi Government Institutions and Statutory Bodies to move away from extravagance and focus on the common interest of bettering the lives of people.
Meanwhile, President Hichilema called for investment in Mpulungu harbor whose infrastructure has not improved for many years to allow traders compete favorably with the Tanzanian ports which is being constructed on Lake Tanganyika.
“Mpulungu Harbor area has not changed and now Tanzania is building a port on Lake Tanganyika competing with us when we were there ahead of Tanzania. So in the last7 years why didn’t we improve Mpulungu so that we can have proper docking facilities there and proper handling facilities so that we can attract more customers to move goods to the Great Lakes?”
“We are failing the traders because we are not managing Mpulungu Harbor and putting infrastructure quick enough that will allow them to compete with the Tanzanian Port on the same lake,” he added.
The Special Meeting for Heads of Quasi Government Institutions and Statutory Bodies was held under the theme; working together towards a common purpose.