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Corruption impedes investment in infrastructure, observes Prof Ndulo

Corruption impedes investment in infrastructure, observes Prof Ndulo
Written by Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Wednesday, November 05, 2008 5:52:27 PM

UNIVERSITY of Zambia (UNZA) head of economics Professor Manengo Ndulo has observed that corruption continues to be the biggest impediment to investment in infrastructure in the country. And World Bank Senior economic advisor Robert Zagha said developing countries like Zambia will not be able to reach levels of sustainable growth rate for as long as their growths were fuelled by booms in commodity prices.

Addressing an Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ) organised public discussion titled, “The Growth Strategies for Sustained Growth and Inclusive Development”, Prof Ndulo explained that most of the taxpayers’ money, budgeted for infrastructure development, is corruptly absorbed through the stages of construction chain.

Professor Ndulo said most people in the country had continued to complain about unequal distribution of income, which was fuelling high poverty levels, because investments in infrastructure were poorly implemented.

He, however, acknowledged that the country has in recent years improved efforts to invest in infrastructure development.

“The levels of investments in infrastructure have not been very successful for many reasons and one of the key reasons are things like corruption,” Prof Ndulo said. “Money which is meant to go into construction of the road or bridge, you find only maybe about 10 per cent goes into the actual construction of the bridge….the rest is shared not by others, even consultants and the people involved pickup the money…so, when we are talking about infrastructure, we are still very far. There is a big effort but we are facing a lot of problems.”

Prof Ndulo also explained that Zambia was still far away from achieving sustainable economic levels as the current economic growth rates which have averaged about five per cent in recent years were still too low.

And Zagha, who is also World Bank’s director for Growth and Development, said although economic diversification was not an easy undertaking, it provided the best remedy for a country to achieve sustainable economic growth rate.

“Diversification of an economy which has commodity exports is not a trivial proposition,” said Zagha. “…it is not an easy task to diversify but unless you are ready to diversify, your growth, in the long run would not be sustainable for political and economic reasons.”

Labels: BOONDOGGLES, EAZ, INFRASTRUCTURE, MANENGO NDULO, ROBERT ZAGHA, World Bank

posted by MrK @ 5:54 PM