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Most Zambians have become tolerant of corruption - Milupi

Most Zambians have become tolerant of corruption - Milupi
By Maluba Jere and Mutale Kapekele
Sunday November 18, 2007 [03:00]

It will be difficult to fight corruption for as long as Zambians continue to eulogise criminality, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairperson Charles Milupi (right) has observed. And Milupi has said Zambia will not achieve the vision 2030 of becoming a medium-income country unless the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grows by far more than seven per cent per annum.

Addressing trainee journalists at The Post head office on Friday, Milupi said most Zambians have become tolerant of corrupt practices as they were even praising the culprits. He said for as long as corruption persisted, no meaningful economic and social development would be recorded for the count

“The problem is that we have a culture of eulogising criminality. If we had a different culture, that would be a major step in fighting corruption,” Milupi said. “We have clerks building mansions and we tolerate them even when we see that their wealth is ill-gotten.

Instead of questioning how they acquired that wealth, we say ‘ebaume aba’ (these are great men). We have allowed laws to fall by the roadside which has led to a ‘Sangwapo’ kind of situation.”

Milupi said everybody in the country needed to realise that poverty would not be alleviated without the proper financial management of public funds. He said government needed to focus on fiscal management.

“President Mwanawasa has shown goodwill from the top to fight corruption but I do not see the zeal to fight corruption from the top down to the bottom,” Milupi said. “The truth is that corruption has become endemic throughout the public service.

Do we need the President to deal with a cashier who has misappropriated or stolen millions of public funds? What is the supervisor of this clerk doing? Sometimes we expect a lot from the President in this fight against corruption when all us can play a role. This country needs people with goodwill to redeem it from corruption.”

Milupi said the fact that most salaries of civil servants were low did not give them an excuse to steal or abuse public resources. He said everyone could make a difference provided they were honest and dedicated themselves to whatever was given regardless of their level in society.

“Villagers in my village where I am headman have nothing but they do not go out stealing. Stealing is a culture that is creeping in. If we sort out this matter, the economy will grow,” Milupi said. “In my village, villagers have nothing to do with people who practice witchcraft and other bad practices. This is how we need to treat corrupt people if this fight against corruption is to be won.”

Milupi said it was unfortunate that the Auditor General’s report was only released almost two years after the end of the government’s financial year. He said this means that the PAC only delves into such reports much later. He said even if the PAC did a lot of good work, the impact would be not greater than when reports were looked at immediately after the year end. Milupi hoped such issues would be addressed in the new constitution.

“It is possible to shorten the period. In the corporate world, the financial reports come three months after the end of the financial year so we can do better. And that is what I would like to see so that in 2007, we would have looked at the 2006 report instead of 2005 so that if there are any improvements to be done, the impact of the work of the Auditor General and the PAC is felt immediately,” Milupi said.

“At the moment there is a lapse. So no matter how much we have done, the audited accounts for 2006 will probably produce the same lapses, the same issues we are talking about and if there is going to be any benefits in our work this year, it will only show in 2008 or in 2009 when we are looking at this year’s report.”

Milupi also called for corrective measures to be taken against erring permanent secretaries who are controlling officers. He said while some permanent secretaries might not be guilty of corruption; they might be guilty of incompetence. He said permanent secretaries who appeared before PAC every year for the same problems declare themselves incompetent and should not be allowed to continue occupying the same offices.

And Milupi said Zambia would not achieve the vision of becoming a medium income country by 2030 unless the GDP grew by 12 to 13 per cent per annum. He said the current growth rate was “peanuts” and could not drive the country to a medium income status.

He said currently, medium income countries had GDP of at least US $40 billion dollars and that Zambia could only achieve that in 2045.
“Our GDP is currently at US$10 billion and by 2030, medium income countries would have increased theirs to US $100 billion,” Milupi said. “Unless we grow at 12 to 13 per cent per year, we will only achieve that in 2045. But it can be done if we change the way we do things.”

He said part of the reason for the slow economic growth was the loss of funds through uncompleted projects and unhonoured contracts.
Milupi cited the example of the Mbesuma bridge in Northern Province were the government paid the contractor K1 billion in 2001 and yet nothing had been done to date.

“Any project must show returns on the investment and to do that it should be on time, of high quality and within cost,” Milupi said. “But for the Mbesuma bridge, K1 billion was paid and yet there is not even a single pillar at the site when the contractor is asking for more money. That is utter rubbish.”

Milupi explained that because of the delay in building the bridge, those travelling to Chinsali from Kasama had to pass through Mpika and in the process lost a lot of money on fuel and wear and tear of vehicles as they were forced to add 400 km to the journey.
Milupi also called on government to devise a system that would help curb what he called “technical theft”.

“At the moment our system is not set up to detect technical theft and a contractor can get away with shoddy work or doing less than the job they are required to do which amounts to technical theft,” Milupi said.
He said the other reason for the low GDP was the low revenue collection by government ministries and the failure by parastatal companies to generate income for the treasury. He wondered how huge capital investment in companies like Zesco, Zamtel and Zampost could fail to contribute to the treasury.

“Zesco has 1 billion dollars in assets, Zamtel and Zampost are also capable of making profits and yet none of these parastatals is generating revenue for the government,” said Milupi.
He said the other area where the nation was losing funds was the copper and gemstone mining through ridiculously low royalties and other taxes.

Labels: CHARLES MILUPI, PAC

posted by MrK @ 6:30 AM