Theft of public funds

Theft of public funds
By Editor
Friday February 15, 2008 [03:00]

No one can disagree with Mike Mulongoti when he says that “ the fight against corruption is not for President Mwanawasa and government leaders alone but for all citizens”.

Let us not be mistaken: the best government in the world, the best Parliament and the best president cannot eradicate corruption in a country on their own, they cannot achieve much on their own. And it would also be wrong to expect a general remedy from them only. Freedom and democracy include participation and therefore responsibility from us all.

If we realise this, then we may stand a chance to deal with corruption in our country. If we realise this, then there can be hope that we will triumph as a nation over the evil of corruption.

But this is not to say the men and women we have put in government to run or manage the affairs of our country on our behalf at such high salaries and relatively very attractive conditions of service have no personal responsibility at all. The buck should stop at them and not at us. If this weren’t so, what would the purpose of employing all these people at such a gigantic cost to the Zambian taxpayer?

It is the duty of those running government, those in power to come up with adequate internal controls and to ensure as far as possible that public funds and other resources are used in an efficient, effective and orderly manner. If public funds and other resources are misused, mismanaged, squandered or stolen, they should bear the primary responsibility. And we as the citizens of this country should bear the secondary responsibility.

What all this means is that when public funds are stolen, it is the primary duty of President Levy Mwanawasa, his ministers and other public officers to ensure that those who have stolen are apprehended and brought to book and are as far as possible forced to make good that which they have stolen.

Clearly, the primary duty of Levy, Mike and others in government is to ensure that public funds and other resources are managed in an efficient, effective and orderly manner. If they fail to do this, then they should be considered to have failed in their primary duty and should be fired.

It is not enough for them to say we have put in place controls or mechanisms to protect public funds and if these controls are over-run or violated and money is stolen, then it’s not our problem; it is a God’s case no appeal.

This doesn’t make sense, this doesn’t encourage accountability and responsibility on the part of Levy, Mike and others in government. It actually encourages abdication of responsibility.

And this should not be tolerated because government is the primary instrument by which people cooperate in order to achieve the common good; it is an authority needed to mobilise and secure the resources from all towards the common good. And accordingly, if those in government fail to perform this very important duty then degeneration sets in in all aspects.

Our plea is not for immunity, but the most unsparing criticism, of the government official who fails to perform his duty to secure public funds and other resources. If money is stolen from a government ministry or department and it is made clear that the officials in that ministry did not perform their duty to properly secure those funds, then together with those who have stolen they must go, they must be fired. There should be a resolute effort to hunt every such government official out of the position whose functions they have failed to efficiently and effectively perform.

And it cannot be denied that although we have been wagging our tongues strongly against corruption, there has been very little action to match that. We hear more of corruption cases than we hear of people being arrested or fired for such misdeeds. In some cases those who are accused of corruption have even been protected by the powers that be until public outcry gets out of proportion. Surely, is this the way to exhibit our zero tolerance on corruption?

Corruption is a grave evil and there’s urgent necessity for the sternest war against it and those who perpetrate it. There should be relentless exposure of, and attack upon every corrupt man whether politician or businessman, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business or in social life.

Our country is not flourishing partly because enormous resources are being wasted or are not being used sensibly. We are wasting the little resources we have available for development.

But this is still not the main problem. The worst thing is that we live in a contaminated moral environment.

We fell morally ill because we have become used to saying something different from what we thought. We learned not to believe in anything and to care only about ourselves. Concepts such as public good, honesty, integrity, accountability have lost their depths and dimensions, and for many of us they represent only psychological peculiarities.

As we have appealed before, let us try in a new time and in a new way to restore accountability, integrity and honesty in the way we manage public funds and other resources.

Let us teach ourselves and others that public offices and jobs are not there to enable those who get them to cheat, plunder, rob or rape the nation but to contribute to the happiness of all citizens.

To make Zambia rich and strong needs intense effort, which will include, among other things, a strict sense of responsibility, accountability, integrity and honesty among those who are tasked to manage public resources and indeed on the part of every citizen.

Honesty, integrity and accountability should be the guiding principles of every public official or officer. It should be made clear to all those who occupy government positions or jobs that corruption and waste are really great crimes.

Our campaigns against corruption and waste have not achieved much. Why? It is simply because we have not matched our words with deeds. This government that claims to have a zero tolerance attitude towards corruption has not put in place any meaningful legislation to help make the fight against corruption much easier, more efficient and effective. Why?

We still see the same tendencies among our public officers – an unwillingness to share the joys and hardships of the masses, and an increasing concern for personal gain. This leads to corruption. It is actually corruption itself. This is very bad and something needs to be done about it. We need to see a much more meaningful campaign and fight against corruption and not just mere political rhetoric.