Maravi

Let's make better use of resources

Let's make better use of resources
By Editor
Thursday April 24, 2008 [04:00]

A lot can be done with very little money if we are honest in what we are doing. If we are honest in what we are doing, it is much easier to accomplish the task in the most cost effective way. We have no doubt the achievements recorded in Kasaka, St Patrick, Chindaba and Munjele schools in Monze district are first and foremost because the people who were in charge of these projects were honest men and women. And because they were honest, they were able to use the ‘little funds’ given to them by the Norwegian government in an efficient, effective and orderly manner.

What the Matantala Rural Integrated Enterprise project teaches us is that we can achieve more if we are responsible in the use of any money made available to us through aid and other disbursements.

Clearly, this shows that it is what we make out of what we have, and not what we are given, that separates us from others.

We must see to it that all our people constantly bear in mind that ours is a poor country with very limited resources. To move our people out of poverty will need many years of intense effort, which will include, among other things, the effort to practice economy and combat waste, misuse and theft of public resources. In short, we will need the policy of building up our country through diligence and frugality.

Diligence and frugality should be practiced in running all public institutions - and even private ones. The principle of diligence and frugality should be observed in everything.

The principle of economy should be one of the basic principles of the economics of a poor country like ours struggling to improve the lives of its people. It will take several years to make Zambia prosperous. Even then, we will still have to observe the principle of diligence and frugality. But it is now and in the coming few years that we must particularly advocate diligence and frugality, that we must pay special attention to economy.

Wherever we happen to be, we must treasure the limited resources we have, and must not take a short view and indulge in wastefulness and extravagance, especially with public resources. Wherever we are, we must bear in mind the many years to come, our protracted war against poverty, disease, ignorance and backwardness that must be won. On the one hand, never be wasteful or extravagant; on the other, actively expand production. The lesson is there – the Matantala Rural Integrated Enterprise project – and attention must be called to it.

In order to speed up development, we must do our utmost, take resolute measures against anyone wasting, misusing or stealing public resources and pay attention to thrift and economy.

Thrift should be the guiding principle in our government expenditure. It should be made clear to all government officials and workers that corruption and waste are great crimes.
Our campaigns against corruption are starting to show some positive results, but further efforts are required.

A dangerous tendency has shown itself among many of our political leaders and key government officers – an unwillingness to share the joys and hardships of the masses, a concern for personal gain and firm.

This is very bad. And to see the extent of what we are talking about, one just needs to look at the London High Court judgement and read for oneself how a president of this country and very senior and key government officers plundered public resources to enrich themselves. And if one also reads the proceedings in the plunder cases that are before our courts of law, one will start to feel something had seriously gone wrong in our country, in the way public resources were managed and used.

One way of overcoming this is to simplify our organisations and the way they are administered and ensure that diligence and frugality is practiced.

And when one reads the proceedings of corruption cases, cases of abuse involving senior officers of our armed force, it is clear that there is need to reform our armed forces and change the way they are managed and the way they conduct their business.

We believe that production by the armed force for its own support will not only improve the armed forces’ living conditions but it will also lighten the burden on the people, thereby making it possible to further expand the armed forces. In addition, it will have many immediate positive side effects.

It will improve relations between officers and men. Officers and men will start to work together in production and become like brothers. It will improve the armed forces’ attitude to labour and loafer ways will be overcome. It will also help strengthen discipline. Far from weakening discipline in a military life, labour discipline in production actually strengthens it.

There will be improved relations between the armed force and the people. Once an armed force begins to keep house for itself, encroachments upon the property of the people seldom or never occur. As the army and the people exchange labour and help each other in production, the friendship between them is strengthened. And there will be less grumbling in the armed forces about the government and improved relations between the two.

This will be an impetus to the development efforts of our people. Once the armed forces engage in production, the need for the government and other organisations to do like wise becomes more obvious, and they do so more energetically. Those who produce rarely engage in wastefulness or other misuse of resources.

Diligence and frugality has to start at the highest level possible – the presidency. If the presidency does not practice economy, is extravagant and wasteful as we saw with the previous presidency, corruption and other abuses become the order of the day.

This presidency, the current presidency, doesn’t seem to be extravagant and stands better to enforce higher standards of thriftiness. But it doesn’t seem to be achieving the levels of thriftiness and economy it can easily achieve. Why? A number of factors can account for this – poor personnel, supervision, monitoring, and organisational setup or framework, among others.

Stealing or abusing public resources in order to enrich oneself will only lead to loss (Prov. 22:16). It’s time we embraced the culture of responsibility and accountability, and committed ourselves with dedication and sacrifice in working for the common good, not only for the current generation, but also for the future generations. When people think only of themselves, when they misuse public resources and apply them to themselves at the expense of the general public, there is a serious problem.

Let’s heed the advice of our Norwegian friend, Ambassador Tore Gjos, and get rid of bad governance and corruption in order for us to achieve meaningful flow of development throughout our country. Let’s make best use of the resources we have. They may not be enough, but if applied in a diligent manner they, may take us somewhere away from poverty and despair.

Labels: NATURAL RESOURCES, TORE GJOS

posted by MrK @ 5:10 AM