Party for National Unity president Highvie Hamududu says there is nothing wrong with President Edgar Lungu making as numerous trips abroad as he wants, as long as the cost of travel is kept to a barest minimum.

Speaking in an interview with News Diggers today, Hamududu said it was childish for people to condemn President Lungu’s international trips, but wiser to demand reduced travel cost.

“The issue of how many trips [the President has made] is childish, the big issue is the cost. You can travel 50 times but if you are prudent, you will spend less money. Very soon we will be making a comment based on the areas of expenditure on all arms of government. How, for example, the travel cost is so high in all the three arms of government, the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature? If you go down the details you will discover that we are spending too much money on travel because we are extravagant. We choose the expensive way of traveling,” Hamududu said.

“For me what is important is the size of the entourage, the importance of the trip. For me really any trip that is made must be cost effective. There is nothing wrong with traveling, I think everyone is traveling. Basically this country is a country traveler, [but] we must minimize the cost in all areas of expenditure including presidential trips. The President can travel like the AU those are mandatory we must understand that. And also you can travel as long as you are bringing money. The travels must be at the least cost, that is what is important.”

He said the three arms of government needed to cut down on wasted expenditure.

“These days of free cost trade, we need to put in measures to save money and one way to do that is to travel at [the] least cost. We expect most of these government officials whether it’s Parliament, whether it’s the Executive, whether it’s the judiciary, to use economy when they are traveling to nearby places like to neighbouring country. So there is nothing wrong with travelling, but the travels need to bring in more value to our economy,” said Hamududu.