The President's trip to India

It is sometimes said that the first law of survival is "When in hole stop digging".

The events surrounding the President’s “private” trip to India makes very sad reading and demonstrate that in this information age you can not easily fool people. With so many sources of independent sources information, liars will always be found out.

We all know that the President was in Botswana early last week where he held a meeting with the Zambian Diaspora among other commitments. He then left for India without the nation being informed. When the news of his departure started filtering on the internet, the government was forced to issue a statement to say he was on a private visit to India. A couple of days later, Indian news sources started reporting that the President was actually undergoing medical procedures in the country. This was not confirmed by the government. However, the President’s trip suddenly changed from being private to an investment promotion trip! His Press Assistant started furnishing us with details of meetings with potential investors and pictures to show the big man was in good health. To sceptics like me, this was statehouse trying to treat the people of Zambia like fools or under fives!

The President holds the highest public office in the land. He also wields a lot of power. Surely the people of this great country deserve to know issues about his whereabouts and his health. A simple statement from Statehouse last week to say the President was going to travel to India to seek medical treatment and will then hold meetings potential investors would have spared them all this embarrassment. There is need to learn from past mistakes. When the late Levy Mwanawasa was in London undergoing treatment for a stroke, we were told he is well and jogging in Hyde Park! We all knew this was a load of cobblers! Micheal Sata, as leader of the opposition, was at the forefront of people calling for an independent panel of medical experts to be assembled to assess Mwanawasa’s condition.

Let’s assume the President had always planned to take this 10 day private visit to India and we are all just being plain old sceptics, then we have to question his priorities. Everyone knew that the Barotse National Council was taking place this week and would most likely lead to inflammatory resolutions. As Zambians we would have expected the President to be in the country to calm the situation and take charge. Meeting potential “investors” or a private visit could have waited.

Coming back to the opening line of this post, the Government should have stopped digging the hole they found themselves in last week and told people the truth. Even their avid supporters such as Fred Mmembe and Father Bwalya agree that this has been handled very badly.

The PANEL

Presidential appointments

The most serious problem facing Michael Sata's government today is not civil servants leaking information about his appointments. It is the quality of his appointments that is a problem.

And this is what Michael should focus his attention on and find ways to improve the quality of his appointments so that they are accepted by the great majority of our people.

There is dissension in the country over the appointments he is making. And this dissension is not coming from his political opponents because these would be very happy to see him weakened by poor appointments. His political opponents are happy with the poor appointments he is making because that aids their campaign against him.

POST Editorial 3^rd November 2011

We have to agree with the POST on this issue. It is insulting to the people of Zambia for the President to appoint characters what have been convicted of corruption in our courts of law or who are perceived to be architects of the MMD plunder of our resources. In a country of 13 Million souls, the President should be in a position to appoint competent Permanent Secretaries without having to rely on plunderers.

A number of people would be justified to start wondering if the PF had a plan to govern this country. It seems all eyes were solely focused on defeating the MMD and nobody thought about what to do if elected. Basic mistakes have been made. Over nominating MPs was unbelievable. Any half decent advisor to the President should have pointed this out before he went public. It is also inconceivable that appointing retired personalities from the KK era is a forward looking move. The PF are slowly turning the clock back. Alexander Chikwanda, Peter Kasanda and Frederick Hapunda among others have made valuable contributions to the country. However, it is time to look to the future and empower a new generation of young Zambian men and women to take the country forward in this information age. This is no time to reward sympathisers with jobs. The country is on its knees and we need the best candidates for these positions.

The President needs to learn to listen to his advisors and the general populace. The MMD lasted 20 years not because they had the mandate of the people but because of political trickery. PF could easily be voted out from government at the next election if they let the people of Zambia down.

The PANEL

A new dawn?

It is almost a month since the Micheal Sata led PF swept the MMD from power. I am one of the people who firmly believed that the MMD would do everything and anything to make sure they returned power. There were even pronouncements from the MMD leadership that “Sata will never rule this country”. In the end no rigging or RB branded lollipops were enough to stop PF winning the election.

This change of government is comparable to the 1991 revolution when KK was defeated after 27 years at State House. Zambians had high hopes and believed in a new era of democracy, accountability and rule of law. Their hopes were soon dashed by the corrupt and scandal ridden MMD rule.

There is now an urgent need to thoroughly investigate corruption and abuse of public resources under the MMD. This should be done openly and objectively. Lessons have been learned from the Chiluba plunder cases which should expedite this process. It should be relatively easy to find out where the MMD found the huge resources to bankroll their campaign. This is not a witch hunt but for the country to move forward lessons need to be learned from past mistakes.

We wish Mr. Sata well and hope that he will deliver.

The PANEL

Mpombo gives advice on pact presidency

After a week of mud slinging within the PF/UPND pact, I am encouraged by mature statements from Nawakwi, Sata, Hichilema and Mpombo over the weekend. I am no fan of Mpombo but his words make sense.

“In life, it is important sometimes to make short term sacrifices for long term gains. Leadership comes from God, and God will ensure that what He has prepared comes to bear. They should remove selfishness and humble themselves by knowing their true status,” he said.

On the decision by the PF to leave Chilanga for UPND, although they beat all the political parties in the area during the 2008 presidential elections, Mpombo described the decision by the PF central committee as magnanimous and mature.

He said he hoped the spirit they had demonstrated in Chilanga would manifest into strong unity of purpose.

Mpombo said it would be important for the PF to UPND to seat immediately and chat the way forward regarding the presidency.

The leaders of the pact should realise that they are carrying hopes of many Zambians on their shoulders. While we accept that there will be differences between the two parties, we expect these to be resolved in a mature manner without running to the POST to denounce each other.

The PANEL.

Proliferation of political parties

In the last couple of months the country has witnessed a number of new political parties being formed. We have had parties fronted by Elias Chipimo, Charles Milupi and more recently Peter Magande. There are already more than 10 existing opposition parties with the leading parties being PF (Sata), UPND (Hakainde) and UNIP. While we recognise the right of every Zambian to aspire to lead our beautiful country, a dose of reality is also necessary. Other than PF, none of the other parties stand a chance of unseating the ruling MMD. Data from past elections prove this.

2002 Presidential Elections: MMD 28.69%, UPND 26.76%, FDD 12.96%.

2006 Presidential Elections: MMD 43%, PF 29.4%, UPND 25.3%.

2008 Presidential Elections: MMD 40%, PF 38.1%, UPND 19.7%.

The data set clearly shows that forming more political parties will just increase the chances of the MMD retaining power as the opposition votes will simply be split. This is the reason why a number of us were excited by the possibility of the PF/UPND PACT fielding a single candidate in the next presidential elections. This presented the best chance to rid the country of the discredited MMD government. Unfortunately the PACT seems to be crumbling in the last few days and we are once again heading for an election where the opposition are fighting each other.

Milupi, Chipomo and Magande need to put personal interests second and help revitalise the PACT. This is what the majority of Zambians want. They do not need more one-man parties. Let us be clear, Magande has no political following. The man even struggled to win the Chilanga seat. Chipimo is a political novice while Milupi thinks his success in leading the public account committee (PAC) in the National Assembly is proof that he can win the next elections.

I am not a fan of Sata but at the moment he presents the best chance of changing the course of the country. Lets all do everything in our power to help him win the elections next year. I have suggested in the past that HH could be Sata’s Vice President to enable him gain some experience of being in government with the view of running for President in 2016.

I also appeal to PF and UPND to stop the public squabbling, concentrate cementing the PACT and start drawing a strategy for next elections. The MMD have already started their campaign with a series of adverts on ZXNBC and You tube!

The PANEL

Auditor General’s report: Where are the voices?

Former President FTJ Chiluba once said Zambians are docile. This is because when we witness an outrage we jump up and down for a few days and then forget it ever happened. The only exception to this, ironically, was Chiluba’s 3^rd Term bid which faced sustained opposition until he gave up.

Every year the Office of the Auditor General produces a report outlining how public funds are being spent by government and quasi government institutions. Each year we read about clear cases of abuse of public resources and yet nothing seems to be done to punish these plunderers.

After the release of the latest report, the Minister of Finance was quoted as saying GRZ needs time to study this report before taking any action. I am sorry but some of these incidents are obvious and do not need further investigation. Any half competent judge or jury would recognise the abuse of public funds.

To demonstrate this fact I will highlight the example of a contract awarded by National Airports Corporation (NACL) to supply and install a generator at Lusaka international Airport.

On 3rd April 2008 NACL awarded a tender for the supply, delivery, installation, testing and commissioning of 800 KVA Three Phase 50Hz 1500 RPM Standby Generator Set at Lusaka International Airport to Sulmach Limited at a contract price of K1,410,000,000 with a delivery period of twenty (20) weeks. Works commenced on 14th May 2008 and were scheduled to be completed by 15th October 2008. A total of K1,142,003,600 (inclusive of an advance payment of K846,000,000) representing 80% of the contract price had been paid to the contractor as of August 2009 leaving a balance of K267,996,400 outstanding. The following were observed:

In April 2009, the contractor could not proceed with the civil works due to liquidity problems. In this regard, an advance payment of K30,000,000 was made to the contractor despite the earlier advance payment having been made contrary to the conditions of the contract that required certification of completed works before payment could be made.

The building under construction in which the Generator set would be housed did not meet some of the technical specifications outlined in the signed contract. For instance the contractor did not make a provision for a generator plinth contrary to the technical specifications provided by the employer in the contract

A physical verification of the civil works carried out in August 2009, revealed that construction works had stalled and the contractor was not on site.

Consequently, the generator set which had been supplied twelve months earlier in September 2008 had not been installed.

The facts of this case speak for themselves. NACL clearly awarded this contract to a company incapable for completing the task and had liquidity problems. K1,142,003,600 of public money has been pocketed by a private company without fulfilling its obligations in full under the contract. The NACL board or the Minister should sack the person(s) who made decision to award the contract and advance funds to the contractor.

The report is full of similar clear cut examples of abuse.

There is no point in having an Office of the Auditor General if parliament and government agencies do not take note and act on its findings. What is the point of carrying out these costly audits if the plunders are not punished?

The Panel.

What is corruption?

According to the OECD, the most commonly used definition of corruption is “the abuse of public office for private gain”.

Transparency International amplifies this definition further by differentiating between "according to rule" corruption and "against the rule" corruption. When a bribe is paid to receive preferential treatment for something that the bribe receiver is required to do by law, constitute the former. The latter is the case when a bribe paid to obtain services the bribe receiver is prohibited from providing.

Armed with these definitions, it is very easy to understand why corruption has become endemic in our society. A trip to the Ministry of Lands or ZRA offices would uncover the required evidence. There are generally two kinds of corruption prevalent in Zambia. The low level corruption where one pays a small amount of money (or uses a personal connection) to expedite a process (e.g. get a form signed) and then there is the high level corruption where perhaps a Minister uses his position to make sure that the road leading to his Guest House is repaired.

The high level corruption is sometimes difficult to detect and requires law enforcement agencies to conduct investigations to gather the evidence and take the culprits to court. However, low level corruption is everywhere! It is a way of life. If you go to the “Public Enquiries” window at the Ministry of Lands you are likely to be told to “come tomorrow”. But if you know a friend of a friend you’re ushered straight into an office and your papers are looked at. This is pattern is being repeated everyday at most public offices across the republic. Someone once told me “you can’t feed your family on patriotism”. So faced with the “come tomorrow” syndrome most of us simply take the easy route and find a way of getting the public officers to expedite the process. This is undoubtedly unhelpful in the fight against corruption but the system looks so rotten that it is difficult to see a way out.

Then there is public procurement. In an internet age, it should be easy for public procurement officers to have a pretty good idea how much goods sourced from outside Zambia should cost. It is shocking to discover how the growing industry of “supplying to the government” is basically ripping off Zambian tax payers. Goods and services that should cost hundreds of pounds suddenly cost thousands. There even examples of second hand goods (refurbished) being supplied when the original tender required brand new goods. Where are the checks and balances?

The PANEL.