Maravi

Use of development cooperation funds

Use of development cooperation funds
By The Post
Thu 06 May 2010, 04:00 CAT

THE Swedish people have every reason not to be happy with the manner in which we have managed the development cooperation funds they have given to us to address poverty.

There’s need for the people of Sweden to evaluate their assistance to us and how it should be given. We think it should be conditional, so that it would be necessary to really know those who are asking for it and how they will manage it.

We say this because when you help someone, a position is taken, and that position is taken on the basis of certain analyses of the loyalty and effectiveness of those in leadership in their people’s struggle to eradicate, or at least reduce, poverty. The assistance should be conditional; if not, they run the risk of it being turned into the opposite of what they want.

Our country needs radical changes for us to eliminate poverty, disease and backwardness. And this means we need leaders who can match the changes we need to make as a people; we need politicians with qualities of leaders of the masses.

We believe that if a completely pure politician doesn’t have certain leadership qualities, they cannot lead the radical changes our country needs to make. And, conversely, if someone has leadership qualities but nothing else, they cannot lead the radical changes we need to make, either.

It is absolutely necessary to have political seriousness and guiding standards and values and a spirit of self-sacrifice which accompanies one’s actions. This requires leaders who see farther and who are selective; self-sacrificing leaders.

The current political leadership of our country, especially those currently running the government, cannot be expected to have the seriousness and spirit required to run the affairs of our country and manage and the development cooperation funds we are being given to address poverty.

This is an irresponsible, greedy, selfish and corrupt clique that sees nothing wrong with misusing, misapplying and stealing development cooperation funds.

This can easily be measured by the way the present Zambian government is dealing with the corruption of Frederick Chiluba and his tandem of thieves. The Zambian government sought international financial assistance to help it investigate and prosecute those who were involved in stealing and abusing public resources under the Chiluba regime.

Millions of pounds, dollars and euros were made available to the Zambian government for that undertaking. And accordingly, Chiluba and his accomplices were investigated, found wanting and taken to court in London. A judgment was obtained in the London High Court, that even came to sit and hear evidence in Lusaka.

But today this same government has embraced Chiluba and his thieving friends and is protecting them from enforcement of the London judgment. It is being claimed that Chiluba has been acquitted of any wrongdoing by the local magistrates’ court in the criminal proceedings they had commenced against him.

The acquittal of Chiluba has been denounced as a fraud, a cheat, a product of manipulation of the judicial process. And this government went as far as withdrawing from the courts a legitimate appeal against Chiluba’s acquittal with the corrupt complicity of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

And it will not surprise anyone if in one way or another, this government, through the Director of Public Prosecutions it has compromised, will deliberately bungle the appeals that have arisen and will arise from the convictions of Chiluba’s friends that have so far been secured.

This is surely a government that can’t be expected to efficiently, effectively and in an orderly manner manage development cooperation funds given to our people by the Swedish government and others.

Corruption is very much a part of this government. This government cannot survive without corruption; without abuse and stealing of development cooperation funds through government tenders, contracts and other crooked means.

Whenever development cooperation funds are provided, for them, they don’t see an opportunity for helping reduce poverty. What they see is an opportunity to make money for themselves, to enrich themselves and ways are sought to steal such funds.

Unnecessary workshops are created and taken to lodges they own; they are the suppliers of this and that for which they are paid from such development cooperation funds. And this is a very deeply entrenched practice which explains why development cooperation funds have not achieved much in terms of reducing poverty.

What the Swedish have poured into this country in terms of development cooperation funds is a lot of money which, if was utilised efficiently and effectively, most of our people would today have been lifted out of abject poverty. But the truth is that money has not been properly spent; it has been wasted.

In saying this, we are not in any way being ungrateful to the Swedish people and their government for making fine use of their deep pockets. It is our collective duty as a people to construct a leadership and a government that take care of our affairs in an honest and efficient manner.

We are yet to come up with such a leadership and government. And we are collectively responsible for this because we seem to have become used to living with corrupt politicians and public officers and have accepted it as an unchangeable fact and we are, in one way or another, helping to perpetuate it.

How else can we explain our tolerance of the way Chiluba has been let off the hook and allowed to go scot-free for all the stealing of public funds he was involved in? And how else can we explain our tolerance of Rupiah Banda’s accommodation of and collaboration with Chiluba and his tandem of thieves?

In other words, we are all – though naturally to different extents – responsible for the abuse and stealing of development cooperation funds and consequently, the poverty our people have to endure.

We have to accept the consequences of this sin that we are committing against ourselves. If we accept it as such, we will understand that it is up to us all, and up to us only, to do something about it.

We cannot continue to blame others, including colonialism, imperialism or foreign domination for everything, not only because it would be untrue but also because it could blunt the duty that each of us faces today, namely, the obligation to act independently, freely, reasonably and quickly.

Let us not be mistaken: the best government in the world, the best parliament and the best president, cannot achieve much on their own. And it would also be wrong to expect a general remedy from them only.

Freedom and democracy include participation and therefore, responsibility from us all. If we realise this, we will be able to utilise development cooperation funds efficiently, effectively and in an orderly manner to see our people out of poverty.

And as we have stated before, let us try in a new time and in a new way to construct a leadership and government that squares up well to these challenges before us.

Let us teach ourselves and others that leadership or being in government should be an expression of a desire to contribute to the happiness of all our people rather than of a need to cheat and rape them, to rob them of the benefits of development cooperation funds.

As to the Swedish people and their government and other development cooperation partners, we urge them to continue assisting us in removing the obstacles to our development. And one such obstacle is corruption. No matter how much development funds are given to us, as long as corruption is the order of the day, very little, if not nothing, will come out of it.

We need help to ensure that development cooperation funds and whatever resources we generate for ourselves are used in the most honest and prudent manner. Solidarity is an objective reality underlining the fact that we are all passengers on the same vessel – the planet where we all live.

And obviously, this vessel is carrying too much inequalities, injustice and unfairness to remain afloat. It is our collective duty to ensure that all passengers can travel on this vessel in conditions of solidarity, equity and justice.

Labels: CORRUPTION, DONORS, MARIE ANDERSSON DE FRUTOS, SWEDEN

posted by MrK @ 4:55 AM