Speaker of the National Assembly Catherine Gotani Hara says her office will consider necessary action against lawmakers who have been absconding parliamentary deliberations.

Gotani Hara said this in Parliament today as parliament adjourns sine dine after meeting for five weeks during the 2020-2021 Mid-Term Budget Review Meeting.

According to Gotani Hara, it is worrisome to note that the legislators were even absconding the deliberations despite attending the meeting virtually.

Commenting on the development, Leader of the House, Richard Chimwendo Banda, admitted that attendance of the members has indeed been poor.

“It’s a worrisome thing, the bad thing is that you may 120 members being very effective in coming and you have a very few people that choose to be absent and the good thing is that the Speaker has taken step and there will be some action taken.

“And there will some punishments given to those that have been absent, that tendency of being absent it’s worrisome and as a leader I will also be taking care of my side and indeed the whole house,” said Chimwendo Banda.

On his part, Leader of the Opposition Kondwani Nankhumwa expressed concern at the rate in which government is accumulating debt.

“It’s a kind of a mix bag, when you look at the Public Finance Documents as displayed as of today, you discover that government has borrowed a lot domestically, over K600 billion which is not looking good at all.

“This is the reason why I was asking the Minister of Finance, yes we understand that we have a Covid-19 pandemic amongst us, but this government should try to live within the means, to live within the budget,” said Nankhumwa.