Maravi

‘Corruption should be treated as national crisis’

‘Corruption should be treated as national crisis’
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Mon 17 May 2010, 03:10 CAT

EVANGELICAL Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) executive director Reverend Pukuta Mwanza has said the fight against corruption in Zambia is not yielding the desired results. In an interview, Rev Mwanza said the fight against corruption was going at a slow rate, below public expectation.

He said the issue of corruption was a moral and spiritual problem. Rev Mwanza said corruption was a serious vice such that it should be treated as a national crisis going by the levels it had reached in the country.

Rev Mwanza said politicians should not use the fight against corruption as a political campaign material but rather act on it when they get into power.

He said corruption reverses all the gains of economic development and leads to perpetual poverty. Rev Mwanza said the fight against corruption was an important responsibility of the government and every Zambian citizen. He said this must be supported by credible institutions such as the police, investigative teams and an independent judiciary.

“And knowing the seriousness of corruption and the impact on development, cases brought before the courts of law must be expedited and the results of the investigations must be made public because they were dealing with public resources,” he said.

Rev Mwanza said there was need to see tangible results of investigations or the fight against corruption would be mere political rhetoric.

He said as a church, EFZ supported the fight against corruption because of the negative impact it had on its people.

And Rev Mwanza said EFZ was happy with the early opening of the crop marketing season. He said it was important to make money available to farmers now to enable them procure the agro inputs for the next season.

Rev Mwanza said the problem was not so much with the timing of the marketing season but the paying of farmers on time by Food Reserve Agency (FRA).

“We have seen in the past farmers paid on the onset of the rainy season. We feel strongly that FRA should be sufficiently capitalised and financed so that it can pay farmers on time,” Rev Mwanza said.

Rev Mwanza also said the road network in rural areas needed to be improved so that far-fetched areas could be reached.

Labels: CORRUPTION, EFZ, PUKUTA MWANZA

posted by MrK @ 3:40 AM