Maravi

The choice is ours

The choice is ours
By The Post
Thu 14 Oct. 2010, 04:00 CAT

It is clear that we have not efficiently and effectively utilised the financial support we have been receiving from the international community. But everything has got a time. Although international aid offered us great opportunities of accelerated economic development, it was not something that was going to last forever.

There is now a move from aid to trade. The budget support they have been enjoying from the international community, as we have seen from this budget, is decreasing at a very fast rate. There are many reasons for this decrease in budget support.

One reason is that those who used to help us may no longer be in a position to do so because of their own budgetary deficits. Another reason is that we have not been able to show tangible results from the aid we have received.

In some cases, we have not been able to adequately account for the financial assistance we have received. This is either because the money has been misappropriated, misapplied or misused. Take for instance a situation in our Ministry of Health where money provided by the international community for HIV medicines was stolen by Kashiwa Bulaya, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health.

It is in this same ministry where money meant for all sorts of health projects has been diverted to the election campaigns of the ruling party. Even automobiles belonging to the Ministry of Health and which were supposed to be used as ambulances found their way into election campaigns.

We published pictures in the 2008 presidential campaigns showing how Ministry of Health automobiles which were supposed to be used to transport those who are ill were instead used to move around members of Rupiah Banda’s campaign team, the image builders he had hired from abroad.

We also know from the proceedings of court cases that a lot of money supplied by the international community is ending up in lodges, motels or guest houses belonging to civil servants and other public workers. And in most cases, the government is overcharged by these same unscrupulous people for workshops or seminars held in lodges or motels that were in the first place built with embezzled public funds.

It is not possible for the government to provide and efficient, effective and orderly health service to our people, especially the poor, if that money is stolen or misapplied in this manner. We also have government contracts for the construction of roads and other infrastructure where gigantic sums are ending up in the pockets of government officials in charge of such works, in connivance with the contractors.

It is not long ago that this issue was in the public domain with concerned government officials denying any corruption in this sector. But who doesn’t know that today we have poor roads and other infrastructure in this country because of corruption?

It will not be fair to expect the international community to keep on pouring money in the bottomless pit that our country has become. So much aid has been given to us, but look at the results! There isn’t much to show. Why? The answer is simple: it’s because of corruption, misuse, misapplication, misappropriation.

And the situation is worse when it comes to the money provided by the Zambian taxpayer. The Auditor General reports every year show frightening cases of corruption, but nothing happens to those who have been found wanting. Even for those who have been tried in our courts of law, ways have been found by their evil friends to free them from accountability. And they have even been given back the properties they acquired with stolen public funds.

This would render even the most determined aid provider helpless. How can, for instance, the British government convince their taxpayers to contribute to our budget when this same government has refused to act sensibly in the registration of the High Court of London judgment against Frederick Chiluba that gave us back over US $45 million that this crook had stolen?

Yes, the reduction of budget support by the international community will affect our people, especially the poor. But it is the duty of our people to hold their government accountable and responsible for the loss of budget support because of corruption.

The decision to allow Chiluba to go scot free is a corrupt one for all those involved in it. It is the duty of the Zambian people to do something about it. Instead of crying for donor support, they should first cry for the return of what Chiluba and his friends stole from them that which Rupiah has helped them keep.

It is not fair to ask for help from others, to ask others to sacrifice their money when we are squandering our own. Let’s make fine use of the little that we have before we go out to ask for the support of others. Let’s guard the little that we have before we can ask others to add more to it.

Donor aid cannot be without conditions. Even the most selfless assistance to others has got conditions. When you help someone, a position is taken, and that position is taken on the basis of certain principles and the ability of those receiving that aid to utilise it efficiently and effectively.

If not, we run the risk of it being turned into the opposite of what we want. Reduced donor aid will mean increased suffering for the majority of our people because our government does not have the capacity to provide its people with all the services required in an organised society.

It will mean more people dying due to lack of medicines in our hospitals. But this should not be blamed on donors. The blame should lie squarely on our shoulders as citizens of this country. We are an independent country with a leadership we ourselves have chosen. And when we fail, as free human beings, we should blame nobody but ourselves.

We must take responsibility for the fate of the society in which we have chosen to live. If we have to harbour any hope of receiving more aid from the international community, we have to construct a leadership that meets expected standards of conduct on issues of corruption and accountability. This corrupt government we have will not take us anywhere.

And no amount of manipulation, posturing will convince donors to give us increased aid. Our greatest challenge is to have an honest leadership because it is only such type of a leadership that can fight corruption and ensure efficient, effective and orderly utilisation of public funds.

It is only such a leadership that can make increased international assistance possible and move our country to another plane of progress. The choice is ours!/WK

Labels: CORRUPTION, DONORS

posted by MrK @ 3:20 PM