If unchecked, Rupiah will destroy Zambia

If unchecked, Rupiah will destroy Zambia
Written by Editor

THERE’S nothing which makes people more appreciative of a government than that it should be able to deliver services. The delivery of government services in our country remains dismal. Many times the bureaucracy we encounter is arrogant, aloof, arbitrary and corrupt in its behaviour.

And a huge part of government expenditure in this country is lost to corruption. The Zambian civil service is slow and convoluted. One of the hindrances to doing business here is the inefficient government bureaucracy.

Our civil service is afflicted by politicisation, corruption, inefficiency and imbalances in staffing and even salaries. And for the last 17 years, all the regimes that have governed this country have been coming in with promises or attempts to re-organise or reform the civil service. It is almost a ritual for every incoming president to make new appointments or transfers of top civil servants. They have all made changes, but things have stayed the same. The only thing that has been increasing is the politicisation of the civil service.

We cannot accuse everyone in our civil service of corruption and inefficiency. We have gems and jewels working in various ministries and departments. Most of them do believe in public service. Most of them want to be honest, they do not want to close their eyes to corruption and dishonesty. But they very often do. And the reason for this lies in the politicisation of the civil service.

The entire structure of our civil service is such that our highest career people are all presidential appointees. And the Civil Service Commission has no say when it comes to presidential appointees.

Political appointments short-cut the rules on qualifications, and bypass qualified civil servants who have put in the years. Demoralisation and fear are among the consequences. Faced with a patronage system where who one knows matters more than what one knows, people in government learn to be quiet, to be timid, to be politic. The prevailing attitude in the civil service seems to be: never mind if you are wrong as long as you don’t step on anybody’s toes, not the president’s, not the minister’s, not even the first lady’s.

The reason why Zambians are unhappy with their civil service is its inefficiency. And there will be no incentive to improve so long as civil servants see their leaders relying on patronage. What they would need instead is incentive to perform well.

There is a lack of real political leadership. Instead of indicating long-term directions, those in charge make demands to undertake shortsighted and short-term projects that must carry the name of the new president and help him to politically survive.

We urge the citizens of this country to speak out. We should learn to assert our rights, we are our own worst enemy.

Inefficiency and corruption have long plagued the Zambian civil service, but they might soon be overshadowed by Rupiah Banda’s unbridled nepotism and patronage.

Rupiah has appointed an unprecedented number of ineligible people to the civil and public service. He has apparently thrown prudence to the wind, giving government jobs to undeserving, unqualified, incompetent individuals and to people who campaigned for him, MMD cadres, his relatives and friends from outside the civil or public service.

Some of the people appointed by Rupiah are unqualified and lack the educational skills, training, background, civil service eligibility and professional experience for their positions.

Rupiah’s appointments not only demoralise and politicise the civil service, they also lead to de-professionalisation. When the career bureaucracy no longer has merit and fitness as its basis because it is politics in command, we will never have a professional civil service.

Rupiah has taken patronage to a very high degree. And because of this, we are today having more political appointees in our civil and public service more than we need. But this, costs a lot of money because each one of these appointees has a staff, an office and huge benefits which have electrical costs.

There is need for Rupiah to be forced to uphold the independence of the civil service from the government of the day and to recognise that the civil service is not just a machine – it is an important component of the entire system of our country’s governance.

We have to stand up for the civil service and oppose Rupiah’s proclivity for political appointments. As a constitutional body, the civil service is supposed to be independent of the government of the day, of the ruling party and serve the nation and all its people.

The key to improving the performance of the government is a strong civil service, and the prospects of that, with Rupiah as President – with his nepotism – are zero.

It is now seen as axiomatic that the civil service should be politically impartial. This is so because politicisation substitutes political criteria for merit-based criteria in the selection, retention, promotion, reward and disciplining of members of the civil service.

Patronage means that civil servants are not appointed on merit and have no incentive to work hard. Patronage appointments do not only favour the incumbent party or president in power, but they also discourage rank and file members of the civil service.

An impartial civil service, in a multiparty political system like ours, should not be seen as an end in itself but as a necessary condition of ensuring that the state has the civil service it needs to function properly.

For this to be realised, there is need for us to secure an efficient body of civil servants occupying a position duly subservient to ministers who are directly responsible to the President and to Parliament, yet possessing sufficient independence, character and ability to be able to advise, assist, and to some extent, influence, those who are from time to time set over them.

If Zambians are not careful, Rupiah will totally destroy this country with his nepotism and unbridled desire for personal political survival and perpetuation. Rupiah doesn’t seem to be motivated by any desire of public service in what he does but by personal ambition and aggrandisement. Such a president is not only of little value to the country but is a danger to the nation.

Through the use of deception, an attempt is being made to create conditions for permitting Rupiah’s political perpetuation, a straitjacket, an apparatus for serving personal ends.

We know that there are those who seek to enjoy the benefits of being in government, in power without contributing anything, or setting things up so as to contribute as little as possible, to the common good.

It requires little intelligence – if a little is all one has – to realise that application of such a policy destroys the apparatus of our civil service.

Let dignity and decorum, courage and manliness, spirit and honesty take the floor. Let criticism of defects be a constant and be directed at all alike.

There is need for Rupiah to be made to realise that the exercise of power must be the constant practice of self-limitation and modesty.

There is need for real political leadership if this country has to move forward. Greed, vanity, selfishness, pettiness, shortsightedness on the part of Rupiah will destroy Zambia and must be stopped at all costs. If unchecked, Rupiah will destroy this country.