Maravi

The local bank without a name

The local bank without a name
By Editor
Sunday October 21, 2007 [04:00]

In life, especially in politics, honest and fair dealing are important virtues. Unfortunately, these virtues have never been counted as useful values amongst most of our political leaders. What seems to matter most for our politicians are unenviable attributes such as dishonesty, deceit and lying as long as the outcome or the end result is ‘cool’. And they embrace these vices without any sense of remorse or shame, without any feeling of guilt.

It is a pity that the subject on the procurement of crude oil should be dragged to this point of denials and partial disclosures by the government leaders when all it should take is to simply lay all the facts or evidence on the table and leave it to the public for judgement. Well, it is easy for government leaders who are making statements on this subject to claim that those making ‘tasteless attacks’ just have an axe to grind with the government of President Levy Mwanawasa. Yes, there is an axe to grind and it only has to do with the fact that there is no full disclosure of information on the crude oil deals.

The public is just being fed with denials which contain scanty details about the entire crude oil procurement deal. And that’s what those who are questioning the government have issues with. Even for us, we do not think that it will be fair to leave a lot of questions unanswered over the procurement of crude oil in the country. Nothing should give rest until the truth is established over the crude oil deals.

Fine, granted that George Mpombo’s explanation on the tender procedure is as accurate as he has put it, although Levy is on record saying that he told off Ministry of Energy officials not to bother so much about the tender procedure during the recent fuel crisis since it was not even their money anyway. However, we still have some questions for Levy and his spin-doctors.

When Levy talked about a local bank expressing interest in helping the government with mobilisation of money for crude oil procurement, can we also be told – in the interest of transparency, honesty and fair dealing – which bank it is? It is important that there is full disclosure in terms of exactly which local bank we are dealing with because the money that will eventually be paid by the government to this bank does not belong to Levy and his officials; it belongs to the people of Zambia; it will be the taxpayer who will ultimately bear the cost of whatever will be accrued to this bank because this same bank is not making this offer for the sake of charity or benevolence, but for business.

And since Mpombo seems to be interested in openness considering that he gave a detailed outline of what really went on with regards to the much talked about crude oil cargo which was stuck at Dar-es-Salaam, we are interested to hear what he has to say about what Levy said about a bank which has expressed interest in helping the government with mobilisation of resources for crude oil supply in the country. We are saying this because it has now become a custom for Levy to inform the nation about his meetings with some chairman of some local bank without mentioning names, without giving more details.

When Levy talks about meetings with these chairmen – or is it chairman – of some local banks, who initiates these meetings? Is it Levy or is it vice–versa? It is important that the context of these transactions is well-understood because as we stated the other day, they involve a lot of money and they should offer an opportunity to many other business players, not just one chairman of a local bank which Levy is so scared to mention.

If there is nothing to hide, why not tell the nation which local bank or banks Levy is dealing with so that from thereon we can attempt to understand the true nature of these transactions. If we know the names involved, maybe the questions being raised by stakeholders may rest or probably more questions will have to be answered.

Furthermore, the people of Zambia deserve to know if the bank which Levy said was interested in helping the government with procurement of crude oil is the same one which has offered to assist the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) with money to purchase maize because Levy has not openly disclosed the identity of the local bank or banks in both cases.

By insisting on this, we are not accusing anyone of wrongdoing, of corruption. No. Our only interest is to see whether or not there is fair dealing, transparency or honesty in whatever is being done over these business transactions. And we believe that if there is really nothing to hide about these deals, Levy should not feel ashamed to name the local bank which has been coming to the aid of his government whenever there is need, whenever there is an emergency.

It is said that only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life’s deepest joy: true fulfillment. And we want to believe that Levy has been dealing with the yet-to-be-named local bank with sincerity and selflessness and we therefore expect that he will be truly fulfilled and satisfied to disclose, without reservations, the identity of the much talked about local bank or banks.

In the end, Levy should know that at this moment, he is should be providing the type of leadership which will not be compromised in any fashion by any forces, be they political or economic. It is important that Levy understands that he has the responsibility to lead this country in a transparent manner in whatever he does on behalf of the nation. We refuse to go back to the type of compromised leadership as we witnessed under Frederick Chiluba’s regime.

We urge Zambians to always insist that Levy’s government lives up to standards of accountability and transparency, and they should only support a government that embraces the rule of law, n

Labels: EDITORIAL, OIL, PROCUREMENT SYSTEMS, TIZ

posted by MrK @ 5:59 AM