Envoy urges tightening of financial controls

Envoy urges tightening of financial controls
By Kabanda Chulu
Wed 02 Dec. 2009, 04:00 CAT

SWEDISH Deputy Head of mission Charlotta Norrby yesterday advised the Zambian government to tighten the weaker financial controls before donor funding can be resumed at the Ministry of Health.

And European Union (EU) head of Operations in Zambia Eric Beaume has expressed concern that despite strong economic growth driven by the copper boom, many Zambians are still living in poverty.

Meanwhile, the European Union has put in place a new constitution dubbed as the ëLisbon Treatyí that is aimed at laying a foundation for a more democratic, efficient and transparent union that will tackle future challenges and deliver better results expected by its citizens.

During a media briefing on the highlights of 2009 and outlook for 2010 on the implementation of the EU cooperation to Zambia in Lusaka, Norrby said an action plan concerning the embezzlement of funds at the Ministry of Health had been put in place.

She said the action plan which was agreed upon by the cooperating partners and the government had short, medium and long term measures.

“Together with our partners from the Netherlands, we are still assessing whether to resume funding or not because so far the government has only met short term measures and we are still thinking whether we can disburse full funding or not based on the short term measures that has been met,” said Norrby. “But it is complicated since the system is too weak at the Ministry of Health though notable progress has been made. A lot needs to be done and the weaker controls should be tightened in areas of auditing, accounts and just having the right staff in all departments because a system has to be tightened whenever money is disbursed.”

And Beaume said governance reforms in general had been moving slowly and called for continued dialogue between government and cooperating partners in order to address challenges through sharing of experiences.

He said there had been overall good progress on fiscal and monetary discipline coupled with strong economic growth driven by the copper boom.

“However, there has been weak performance in agriculture and economic diversification and the strong growth has not been translated into significant decline in poverty and also the urban and rural divide is increasing,” Beaume said.

He said this year, the EU had disbursed 50.9 million euros (that was not budgeted for) to help Zambia respond to the challenges posed by increased food prices and the economic and financial crisis.

Beaume said the EU had continued to implement the 8th and 9th EDF funds with total commitments amounting to 413 million euros, out of which 256 million euros has been disbursed so far.
And the Swedish EU Presidency represented by Sweden Ambassador to Zambia Marie Andersson de Frutos said the rotation of the EU Presidency among member states had come to an end following the appointment of a full time and permanent President and foreign minister.

“We are convinced that the treaty of Lisbon is the appropriate answer for a more efficient, more democratic and more coherent Europe. The appointment of Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy as President of the European Council and Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton as Representative for Foreign Affairs will ensure the consistency of our external actions, said Ambassador Andersson de Frutos. The treaty will have a clear and beneficial impact on EU relations with Zambia, first it will give the EU a single voice in its relations with Zambia and it will sharpen the impact of our message and it will enhance our capacity to act by bringing together Europe’s external policy tools, both in terms of policy development and policy delivery.”