Reduce land application backlog - Levy
By KANGWA MULENGA
PRESIDENT Mwanawasa has directed the Ministry of Lands to speed up the backlog of applications for land acquisition, especially those for agriculture and housing development. And Dr Mwanawasa has revealed that a Government Ministry will soon be under investigations for corrupt practices. He was speaking at the commissioning of the new Ministry of Lands customer centre at Mulungushi House in Lusaka yesterday. Dr Mwanawasa was pleased with the development of a new vision for building transparency and integrity at the Ministry of Lands.
“The improvement in customer service should address the pressing need for land. I therefore direct the Ministry of Lands to seriously look into this matter,” the President said.
He said the Ministry should secure land by way of re-entry and compulsory acquisition to ensure that land could be made available to meet the overwhelming demands that government was facing in land acquisition.
Dr Mwanawasa said the establishment of the customer centre should help to enhance security and sanctity of the national heritage and wealth.
He said he was last year compelled to halt operations at the Ministry of Lands because of the high prevalence of corruption among some members of staff.
Dr Mwanawasa commended the Minister of Lands, Bradford Machila, for transforming the mindset of some members of staff who had a habit of engaging in corrupt activities.
He was happy to note that last year the Ministry collected revenue amounting to K20.4 billion which was more than the K10.9 billion it was expected to collect.
Dr Mwanawasa commended the United States government for the support towards the completion of the US$22.7 million customer centre project at the Ministry.
He was happy that over the past two years, the Government cooperation with the Zambia Threshold Project under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Millennium Challenge Corporation had yielded positive results.
And Dr Mwanawasa said he had received disturbing corrupt reports on a certain Ministry he, however, did not mention.
He said the Ministry would soon be investigated by law enforcement agencies.
“There is one Ministry to be visited by the law very soon. It’s high time they changed instead of what they are doing,” Dr Mwanawasa said.
And the President has warned civil servants that he would not hesitate to send law enforcement agencies to corrupt ministries in order to root out corruption and improve public service delivery.
He said the new deal government would remain committed to the fight against corruption in public institutions.
Earlier, Mr Machila said the Ministry had embarked on programmes aimed at improving public service delivery in the administration of land.
He said the Ministry was in the process of finalising the code of ethics for its staff.
Mr Machila said the US$22.7 million support from the US government helped the ministry to establish a State of the Art Internal Technology, conduct capacity building programmes for members of staff and the construction of the customer service centre.
And US ambassador to Zambia, Carmen Martinez, said the new customer centre would promote efficiency and transparency in administration of land in Zambia.
She said the fight against corruption should be an on-going process and that there was need for a long-term struggle involving all key stakeholders.
“The fight against corruption is an on-going long term struggle involving all of us. Simple measures such as the customer service centre that we are launching today can have a marked and direct impact that limits the opportunities for graft and abuse of official authority,” Ms Martinez said.
She commended President Mwanawasa for his quality leadership style, especially in the fight against corruption. Several cabinet and deputy Ministers attended the official commissioning of the customer centre.
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