They feel the parliamentarians have not deliberated on the budget enough as they have officially finished deliberating on it Thursday 19^th June 2020, only five working days after the budget was presented in the house by the Minister of Finance on 12^th June 2020.

Usually the parliamentarians discuss the budget for 10 days in their different committee clusters, where money allocated towards different sectors is scrutinized.

Economist Lewis Chiwalo of the Economic Empowerment Action Group and Social Commentator Rafiq Hajat agree that this might have a negative impact on the country’s economy as well as recipe for misappropriation of the funds.

Economist Chiwalo fears this will negatively affect implementation of the budget.

He believes they should have taken time looking into it considering the intensity of the matter at hand. Chiwalo says this will negatively affect output.

Social Commentator Rafiq Hajat shares similar sentiments. He feels this will not only see the country having an inappropriate budget but also affect the parliamentary oversight role in that if the money is not looked into properly, parliament will struggle as well to hold those responsible accountable.

However, parliamentary spokesperson Ian Mwenye has downplayed the fears saying the short time for cluster meetings is no cause for worry.

Mwenye says members strategized given the time available where in other circumstances they squeezed some stakeholders into their tight programs.

He adds that this is a strong sign of their commitment into ensuring they carry out the given task.

The different parliamentary committees are expected to present their reports to parliament on Monday amid growing uncertainty of its possibility considering the Tuesday court ordered Fresh Presidential Elections.