Maravi

The smell of corruption

The smell of corruption
Written by Editor

One of the things that were characteristic of Frederick Chiluba’s years in government was refusal to be accountable. Systems and procedures that were meant to protect public resources were maligned and called Unipist, referring to Dr Kenneth Kaunda’s UNIP government. With great swiftness and determination, Chiluba’s government made sure procedures were ignored, giving themselves freedom to act as they wished.

It was not uncommon to have big contracts taking place in government without any tenders ever having been floated. We rarely saw Zambia National Tender Board adverts in the newspapers. Everything seems to have been going on, on an ad-hoc basis. Many of our people will remember that the management of the Zambia National Tender Board moved to State House. Chiluba and those closest to him became the controllers of all major government contracts. There were very few roles left to professionals.

Politicians and their agents took full control. Anyone who did not comply was fired from government. There was a total collapse of government systems and controls. The civil service and the parastatal sector was completely politicised and filled with those who were prepared to do as Chiluba wished – right or wrong, criminal or otherwise.

We know that the procurement of fuel for national consumption was being controlled from State House. The situation was not different in the procurement of maize in the years when the nation experienced a food deficit and needed to import.

Many of our people began to believe that we did not have adequate laws to deal with these problems. Even donors were convinced that the problem was capacity. So much money was spent on this or that capacity-building programme. New laws covering this or that area were written and passed in the parliament that Chiluba controlled absolutely.

It is to this period in our history that we probably owe the culture of sitting allowances and per diems. Our civil servants were being taken to one workshop after the other by well-meaning donor agencies because they believed that the problem was capacity. And therefore they needed to help retrain our people.

So many years have passed, a lot of seminars have been held and indeed a number of our civil servants are very well trained – they have no problems of capacity. But a lot of the problems that led to those expensive seminars and training sessions are still as alive today as they were then. The laws that have been enacted since then to improve accountability are still being ignored.

This raises the question: what was the problem? Was it capacity? Indeed when we look at the situation today, this same question is relevant: what is the problem? We saw how Chiluba seemed to thrive in an environment where government processes and procedures were ignored or when respected, it was in matters that were inconsequential.

The problem therefore has very little to do with the lack of laws, processes and procedures. The problem is the failure and refusal to respect the law, the processes and procedures that it prescribes. In our country, there seems to be an executive culture of disdaining the rule of law. The executive pays lip service to the respect for the rule of law.

Chiluba perfected the art of abusing the law. He went so far as to legislate to fix specific individuals. Making theft of motor vehicles a non-bailable offence to fix the late Archie Malie Mactribuoy, a man who was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with Chiluba’s wife then, Vera, was nothing for him. A whole statutory amendment was passed to fix this gentleman and keep him in jail. This is where they are coming from.

It seems Rupiah Banda wants to take us back to such dark days. It is very clear that he has no respect for government processes and procedures. Rupiah does not seem prepared to have his conduct regulated by these processes. His wishes have to be carried out regardless.

The attempt to privatise Zamtel in the manner that Rupiah and his minions want to proceed is a clear example of what we’ve just been saying. Everybody can see that this transaction stinks. The proper processes were not followed in the appointment of RP Capital Partners to provide the advisory services to the government and the Zambia Development Agency. This has not stopped Rupiah and his minions to steam ahead with a process that has been discredited before it even began. This transaction was conceived in lies, by liars, for liars. The truth about this transaction is too inconvenient to be faced by Rupiah and his minions.

After Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines and our electricity supplier, Zesco, Zamtel must be the biggest asset our government has held for the people. A decision to privatise such a company requires full transparency and accountability. Government procedures and processes must be followed to the letter. The process is as important as the exercise itself. It is not just a question of Rupiah telling us “we want to save Zamtel”. Save it for whom? Save it how? By giving it away? By having your son to arrange the valuation and eventual sale? Can this be said to be a transparent and accountable way of dealing with Zamtel?

When we raised questions about the way RP Capital Partners were engaged to value Zamtel, all sorts of explanations were given by the government. The only consistent thing about the explanations that government was giving was that they were telling lies. To use Dr Kaunda’s words, it was lies in the morning; lies in the afternoon; lies in the evening – shameless lying! Why tell so many lies if the interest was to save this company and help the Zambian people? Why was it difficult to be honest?

In Parliament on February 13, 2009, Dora Siliya told the nation that RP Capital Partners were engaged through a Memorandum of Understanding that was signed on December 22, 2008. According to her, RP Capital Partners walked into Ministry of Communication and Transport and offered to help rescue Zamtel. They just came from nowhere. When the Ministerial Code of Conduct tribunal was established, one of the witnesses that was called, chief executive officer for Pangaea Renaissance Securities Limited Caesar Siwale, told the tribunal that Henry Banda, Rupiah’s son, had approached him and asked him to provide support to the RP Capital valuation of Zamtel in November 2008. Dora told Parliament that RP Capital were retained on December 22, 2008. The question is: how could Henry Banda approach Pangaea Renaissance in November when the Memorandum of Understanding was only signed on December 22? What about Henry? Why was Henry approaching Pangaea, unless he was working with RP Capital? To any honest person, it is wrong for the President’s son to be involved in such a huge transaction which has not been opened to public tender. This is what corruption looks like. This is what abuse of office smells like. Rupiah, for his part, dismissed as nonsense the legitimate questions that our people were raising about this transaction.

Not to be left out, George Kunda added his own two pennies worth of nonsense. George told the nation that the agreement signed by Dora was not binding. In his words, it was a Memorandum of Understanding with no legal effect. What is happening today? Why does the government seem connected at the hip with a company whose origins seem questionable?

We continue to ask these questions because Zamtel is such an important company. We have to learn lessons from the botched up privatisations of the Chiluba years. We challenge our people to do their own search on the characters behind RP Capital. Yesterday, we told our people about a gentleman called Dan Gertler. This is the only natural person we have been able to connect to RP Capital. Do a search on the internet. To be specific, go to google and type in “Dan Gertler corruption” and see what comes out. A lot of rotten things are said about this gentleman and his business dealings. Why should Rupiah, with the apparent help of his son Henry, single source such a company?

We agree with Hakainde Hichilema that the whole Zamtel sale stinks of corruption.

[MrK: for further reading, check out:]
* Top Israelis accused of illegal diamond deals
Published Date: 18-02-2004

* Nikanor’s DRC mining contract quandary
Meet Dan the man, King of the Congo.
Author: Barry Sergeant
Posted: Tuesday , 03 Apr 2007

Labels: CHILUBA, CORRUPTION, NEOLIBERALISM, PRIVATISATION, ZAMTEL

posted by MrK @ 4:38 PM