'Thou shall not steal - Post Editorial
COMMENT - " Something has really gone wrong in our country as far as accountability is concerned. "The answer is simple - track public expenditures and incomes. This is not hard to do. Banks can keep track of millions of accounts, and the government can do the same, IF THERE IS THE WILL TO DO IT. Therefore, no one is to blame except the government in charge, even more than the individuals who took or misdirected the money.
Odd that the World Bank and IMF keep so quiet about the misappropriation of funds by friendly governments. It s almost as if they are... complicit in corruption.
http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=22347
'Thou shall not steal
By Editor
Friday February 09, 2007 [07:17]
Corruption seems to be out of control in our public service.
There appears to be a complete breakdown in the running of our public service.
Three trillion kwacha is not a small amount of money to disappear without trace. Last year our national budget was K10.5 trillion. The three trillion kwacha that has been stolen by public service workers is almost 30 per cent of our national budget. This is too high a figure to ignore.
Two days ago, President Levy Mwanawasa disclosed to the nation that three trillion kwacha had been stolen by public service workers. But to date, we don’t know of any such public worker who has been arrested for this gigantic theft.
In a system that is functioning, even with weak controls here and there, three trillion kwacha cannot be stolen without anyone being arrested. Moreover, this money was not stolen by one person and on a single day. There are many people involved and the money was stolen over a period of time. Even the weakest of controls could have detected this and some people would by now be doing time in jail.
Something has really gone wrong in our country as far as accountability is concerned. For things to get to this level, it can only mean one thing: corruption has destroyed our social structures. And it will not be easy to correct things; drastic measures will be required. Nothing short of revolutionary measures will help correct the situation. Corruption in Zambia has become an accepted way of life. Yes, thefts make people like Levy sick. But that’s all.
Like any other sickness they recover and get on with their lives again as if nothing had happened to them. Our public service is rotten to the core; it is reeking with corruption in every pore. And this is the institution that is supposed to be managing the affairs of our nation and ensure that everything is done in an efficient, effective and orderly manner. It is the public service that is supposed to oversee all the activities going on in the nation. But what can this rotten institution, stinking with filth, guide the nation on?
But this is what happens in a nation when the President of the Republic is allowed to use public funds and other resources without accountability and as if everything personally belonged to him.
This is what happens to a country when people are allowed, as a norm, to live on unearned income without being questioned by anyone. We know that in the previous regime, the president used to boast of having introduced a system where one could move with his dollars at the airport without being questioned by anyone where he got them; one could own anything without being asked by anyone how he or she acquired it.
And this was seen to be a way of promoting entrepreneurship, free enterprise and private ownership; it was seen to be a way of promoting individual liberty. But they forgot that even in the most capitalistic countries, citizens are compelled to account for what they own; they have an obligation to show the authorities where they got the money to acquire this and that.
There is nothing wrong with such a practice because it promotes honest living in a nation. This is what the UNIP government of Dr Kenneth Kaunda tried to achieve with the establishment of SITET. This institution was used to find out where some citizens got the money to acquire this and that. It was actually through SITET’s enquiries that the nation learnt that some of our fellow citizens were involved in drug trafficking. They were found with a lot of money and other things of very high value and when asked how they got them, they disclosed that it was through dealings in mandrax. Of course at that time it was not a criminal offence in this country to deal in such drugs.
What would be wrong with asking a civil servant who earns three, four or five million kwacha per month to account for where they got the money to build a house or acquire assets that are worth billions of kwacha? Today in this country, we have public workers who own far more property than their accumulated earned income. Nobody raises any questions about it. It is a normal thing in Zambia. And in the first place, who in the public service would be courageous enough to raise such questions without risking themselves to be asked the same questions?
This is the worst result of the reckless measures of the Chiluba regime. They totally destroyed the public service and allowed corruption to become the norm in public service under the guise of promoting liberties. To change the system now will be extremely difficult; will call for a lot of courage to institute measures that will turn almost the entire public service against the politicians in power. But the reality is that this corruption, this theft of public funds will not be stopped without a very big fight, a protracted struggle to cleanse the public service of corruption.
And when we talk about the public service, we also include the private sector in this matrix of corruption. This is because funds stolen from government are channelled into private businesses, private properties or private sector in general. So any measures that are targeted at cleansing the public service should also be targeted towards the private sector. We do appreciate Levy’s frustration on this score.
It is clear to us that Levy means well on most of these issues but he is at sea with the realities. He appears to seriously lack understanding of what is going on and in some respects he doesn’t seem to believe the extent of the rottenness of the system; he doesn’t seem to believe that citizens of this country can do such horrible things to their own people. But he’s waking up to the reality - and it is making him sick.
Corruption in this country will not be eradicated without a serious war. A government that commits itself to fighting corruption is risking its popularity. But a choice has to be made to change the wrong and bad practices or to continue with the rot.
We invite all our people, the Zambians of goodwill to avoid corruption at all costs and condemn it whenever and wherever they see it. All Zambians have a duty to promote transparency, accountability and honesty in the nation, especially where public resources are concerned. It is not much an issue how an individual spends or squanders his legitimately earned resources.
And moreover, in a nation like ours that has declared itself a Christian one, corruption should be considered to be a sin with drastic evil effects. Exodus 20:15 says, “You shall not steal.”
Corruption is robbing our nation of scarce resources.
Labels: CORRUPTION
posted by MrK @ 6:41 PM
3 Comments:
" Something has really gone wrong in our country as far as accountability is concerned. "
The answer is simple - track public expenditures and incomes. This is not hard to do. Banks can keep track of millions of accounts, and the government can do the same, IF THERE IS THE WILL TO DO IT. Therefore, no one is to blame except the government in charge, even more than the individuals who took or misdirected the money.
Odd that the World Bank and IMF keep so quiet about the misappropriation of funds by friendly governments. It s almost as if they are... complicit in corruption.
tracking public expenditure in government buildings is practically impossible, theres simply no accountability besides none of these offices are computerised...or keep records.
Wow. Well that also shows what has to be done. Government money should be monitored from income to expenditures.
And it wouldn't be that expensive to computerize all government offices.
They would have to put up one satellite. Then, if there were 350 government units, and they had 20 computers each, and one computer costs $1000, that would only be $7 million total (350 x 20 x $1000).
And think of all the jobs that could be created through this greater efficiency.
The government could really do something about this.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home