Maravi

Rotten military and security agencies

Rotten military and security agencies
Written by Editor

There is something seriously wrong with the way our military and security agencies are being run. It is not normal for almost all the generals of our armed forces to be found with cases to answer for corruption, some being convicted accordingly. And this covers not only the generals who served under the corrupt regime of Frederick Chiluba. It also includes a general who served under Levy Mwanawasa. So here, no one can say it’s Chiluba’s generals being persecuted with him.

Lt Gen Christopher Singogo was yesterday sentenced to six years imprisonment for corrupt activities he engaged in when he was Zambia Air Force commander under Mwanawasa.

This should be a very big embarrassment to our men and women in uniform. And there is no way anyone can today tell the Zambian people not to talk about the mismanagement of our military and the public resources being allocated to it. It is very clear that our military and security agencies are rotten and are generally being managed by crooks. It is no wonder our soldiers today stay in shanty compounds and are working under very poor conditions. Today there is literally a shortage of everything in our armed forces. But the generals of our military are every day becoming richer.

And we don’t think this ends here because when a fish is rotten, it is the head that first reveals its state. The cases that are before our courts of law are a mere tip of the iceberg. There is a much bigger problem in our armed forces. The corruption goes very deep. Taxpayers’ money is not being used prudently; it is being stolen and squandered.

With this level of corruption in our armed forces, it is not possible for our men and women in uniform to ensure or guarantee the security of our country. With this level of corruption, there can’t be adequate resources for training and re-equipping of our military. Generally, all that our generals seem to be interested in is stealing public funds to enrich themselves. Today, almost every high-ranking official in our military and security agencies is a businessman of one sort or another. They are not full-time professional military men – they are more or less full-time businessmen and part-time military people. How can we have a professional military with this type of leadership and organisation of our military?

There is nothing secret about these issues because they are all in the public domain. Look around the country and see how many lodges, bars and other businesses which are being run by military officers or senior officers of our security agencies!

It is very clear to us that our military and security agencies have lost their professionalism. But it is not only our military that is affected in this way. The entire civil service is equally rotten. Strictly speaking, we don’t anymore have a professional civil or public service. Most of our senior public officers spend more of their time running their businesses of lodges, farms and so on and so forth. They are spending very little time on their official duties and they only do so usually when there is something in it for them. They only work when there is something to steal or a contract to divert to their friends so that they can share the spoils.

You can’t have a civil or public service that is dominated by businessmen and expect it to function properly. Even when they talk about public private partnership (PPP), they are simply talking about themselves looting public funds. It is these same public officers who are running private businesses and the partnership they are talking about is between themselves and themselves. As long as this situation continues, there will never be meaningful PPPs or even citizen economic empowerment because everything revolves around these same civil or public officers. What we are saying about civil and public officers also applies to our politicians, especially those in government. They are doing the same things. And this is what is making the cost of running government extremely high because there is nobody out there to save public funds and ensure that taxpayers’ money is used prudently and efficiently.

With this situation, what will stop those in charge of our military and security agencies from looting public funds, especially when they know that they run institutions that are not generally open to public scrutiny?
If one goes round today, one will find that these generals of ours own huge properties and assets without borrowings from anywhere. Yet their salaries are so low and no one questions the source of their wealth. But we know very well that money does not grow on trees. So where is their money coming from? It’s from stealing public funds and other corrupt deals.

And if one moves around the outskirts of Lusaka, most of the huge houses there or farms are owned by public or civil servants whose salaries are generally known to be low. And most of them also don’t owe anybody money, they have never gone to the banks to borrow. How did they manage to acquire all this wealth? Is it from travel allowances or workshop per diems? Whatever the source, there are some honest questions that seek honest answers. If it is from travel allowances or per diems, then these are excessive given the state of our economy and need to be critically looked at.
With this type of corruption, we should not expect discipline or orderliness in our public institutions, including the military and security agencies. This type of corruption and mismanagement of public resources poses a serious national security risk. With this type of corruption, we will not have properly trained military and security agencies to deal with any material disturbances to our national security. The military is an important institution which no serious and sensible country can think of doing away with. But it is also not an easy institution to run. It requires a lot of discipline and controls. In a military where all the generals are thieves, what type of discipline and controls can one expect to find in place? Can these thieves and corrupt elements really be entrusted with the noble duty of ensuring our national security?
There is need for our politicians and all our people to pay serious attention to the observation made by magistrate Charles Kafunda when convicting and sentencing Lt Gen Singogo to six years imprisonment: “On the whole, this case has brought to the fore a scenario of extremely weak fiscal guidelines and controls in ZAF at the material time. I hope they have been addressed and if not, it is imperative that the same be attended to by the relevant authorities in order to safeguard meagre taxpayers’ resources.”
Lt Gen Singogo was promoted by Levy Mwanawasa to commander of ZAF after the arrest of Lt Gen Sande Kayumba for corruption. One would have thought Lt Gen Singogo would have realised that corruption doesn’t pay. But he took over from a man who was being prosecuted for corruption and went straight into corruption himself. And unfortunately for him, his case has ended faster than that of Lt Gen Kayumba. Well, it may be just a matter of time, they may be teammates in prison.
This type of military and security agencies is dangerous. With this level of corruption, there is nothing that can stop our military and security institutions from engaging in any corrupt activities, including rigging elections, to keep their privileged positions of stealing. And if we don’t act quickly to correct the situation in our military and security agencies, we are in very long strides headed for the confusion that we only see on television in other African countries. The time to correct that is now. And let’s open up public discourse on this issue and ensure that it is dealt with intelligently.

Labels: ARMED FORCES, CORRUPTION

posted by MrK @ 9:35 AM