Maravi

A relevant and credible 2009 budget

A relevant and credible 2009 budget
Written by Fr Pete Henriot
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 9:38:46 PM

So what do I say about Obama? Many people have asked me that question since the swearing in of the 44th President of the United States of America a week ago. And I’ve repeatedly asked myself that question!

Well, there already have been some really excellent analyses of his inaugural address and the hopes and expectations that this man is bringing not only to the USA but to the wider world. I really can’t add too much more – other than a very personal word.

For me, the opening of the Obama term of office has enabled me to begin to say again, “I’m proud to be a USA citizen!” I haven’t been able to say that in recent years, and now maybe I – and millions of others – can say it! Ask me again in a year’s time….

But today I want to share some reflections on something very important coming up in the next few days here in Zambia: the presentation of the GRZ Budget for 2009. I’m sure that the Budget address is already prepared and the copies of the Yellow Book already printed. Yet here are at least I offer two suggestions for some priorites of the address that I believe would make the overall Budget exercise both more relevant and more credible.

Poverty priority

On 16 January, when President Rupiah Banda addressed the opening of Parliament, he emphasised that the number one priority in the country had to be dealing with the issue of the poverty conditions in which the majority of our citizens live. Repeating a promise he made in his inaugural address, he emphasised fighting poverty would be his priority.

In a moment of global recession that has already affected Zambia’s struggling economy, and will affect it even more sharply in 2009, the poverty issue is Number One. The Budget must make that same point in its orientation, operation and outcome. My suggestion for the new Minister of Finance and National Planning is that he depart from the ordinary order of presentation of the Budget and make this point right from the start of his Address.

Such a start would be fresh and encouraging, demonstrating the relevance of the Budget to the real world situation of Zambia today. That real world situation has aptly been called the “Poverty Paradox.” That paradox is that Zambia is one of the richest countries in Africa with some of the poorest people in the world! So rich in so many resources, but ranking 165 out of 177 nations on the UNDP Human Development Index.

Zambia of course faces each day more and more the consequences of the global financial crisis. Recently, a high-powered seminar on “Business Unusual,” sponsored by the Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ), heard presentations by top-level Government officials (including the Minister of Finance and National Planning and the Governor of the Bank of Zambia), academics and civil society representatives. Again and again the sentiment was expressed that we simply can’t do “business as usual” and expect to move forward as a nation.

Thus I would urge the minister to put upfront in his coming address the government’s commitment to deal effectively with poverty and let the Yellow Book demonstrate that commitment on every page. Let the social sectors be adequately funded, because no nation can develop without healthy and educated citizens. Let agricultural development be put in the context of rural development, improving the context within which our farmers will willingly and efficiently grow the crops to feed the nation. Let revenue measures acknowledge the rising cost of living of ordinary taxpayers (check out the JCTR’s Basic Needs Basket on www.jctr.org.zm!).

In short, without making the fight against poverty the priority of Budget 2009, the Address and the Yellow Book will lack the relevancy needed to be taken seriously!

Corruption priority

Moreover, the Budget 2009 will simply not be credible unless it acknowledges the shocking and unacceptable drain on the national economy of the widespread corruption and lack of accountability currently experienced in this government’s operations. Evidence of that drain does not come from opposition party criticisms or civil society organisations’ lamentations but from the government itself.

I wonder how many people noted the extreme anomaly reported in two headlines on the front page of the Daily Mail on Saturday, January 24. One headline reported that Zambia was receiving K850 billion from generous donors for budget support. But another headline on the same page exclaimed that the government had lost K767 billion through rampant misuse, theft and misappropriation of public resources, according to the just released Auditor General’s 2007 Report.

Well, honestly, how can a government expect to function when in one door comes donor aid and out the other door goes stolen assets? Yet year after year this anomaly goes on, apparently without any real effective effort to halt its tragic impact on the lives of Zambian citizens!

Just two years ago, Transparency International-Zambia (TIZ) released its sobering report, Show Me the Money, detailing 20 years of the huge loss of money revealed in the annual Auditor General’s Reports. But is it fair to ask how many government officials have been suspended, fired, prosecuted or jailed because of their “rampant misuse, theft and misappropriation of public resources”?

I want to suggest that the Minister’s Budget Address will not be credible this year unless he explicitly acknowledges this shameful situation and announces specific steps to correct it. For how can we continue to be grateful for donor aid – needed this year more than ever – if we continue to allow the waste of that aid to go on unchecked?

It would really make some people sit up if the minister could say that he was directly instructed by the President to announce during his speech that individuals named in the Auditor Generals’ Report would with immediate effect be suspended from government service. Yes, innocent until proven guilty in court trials – but not allowed near government money unless cleared by judicial action!

What I am saying is that no one can, no one should, give credibility to accounts shown in the up-coming Budget unless action is taken to be sure that the disgraceful deeds of some government officials from Cabinet rank down to lowest civil servant rank are effectively dealt with without delay.

Yes, relevant and credible. Zambians will be listening carefully and hopefully this Friday to the new Minister’s first Budget Address. God bless him!

phenriot@jesuits.org.zmThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Labels: 2009 BUDGET, FR HENRIOT

posted by MrK @ 9:38 PM