Govt shouldn’t downplay donors’ concerns on accountability - EFZ

Govt shouldn’t downplay donors’ concerns on accountability - EFZ
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Mon 03 Jan. 2011, 04:00 CAT

THE government should not downplay the donors’ concerns about accountability for donor aid, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ). EFZ executive director Reverend Pukuta Mwanza said the government should take the donors' concerns on the use of financial aid seriously.

Rev Mwanza said it was also unfortunate that donors were withholding funds due to abuse of funds but that this affected the majority poor. He said where there was corruption, there was no guarantee of transparent use of resources.

“We must see the strengthening of organisations dealing with corruption. The judiciary should be given the necessary autonomy without interference from anybody and in that way, it will guarantee progress in the fight against corruption,” he said.

Rev Mwanza said the government needed to do a lot of work in the fight against corruption because it was an important factor in ensuring integrity in governance and national development.

In 2009, the Anti Corruption Commission unearthed a scam in which civil servants at the Ministry of Health were alleged to have stolen K27 billion public funds. This subsequently led to donors - Sweden, Netherlands and development aid organisations – withholding funds pending the release of the audit report and implementation of measures to safeguard donor aid.

The Global Fund, whose report also highlighted gross irregularities in the usage of funds last year, changed its principal recipients from Ministry of Health to United Nations Development Programme.

Donors also withheld funding to the road sector following the Road Development Agency’s over-procurement of works by K1 trillion and other irregularities. Some donors have since resumed funding to both the road and health sectors.

Donors have been raising concerns about the use of funds in the country but the government has in most cases been defensive. President Banda last year asked donors to leave the country if they were not happy with his government’s fight against corruption. He asked the donors to stop poking their noses in the country’s internal affairs because it was not a Banana Republic.

And Rev Mwanza also said there was need for the government to rethink its policy on the mines and the windfall tax because the mining sector was still the major contributor to the country’s economic development.

There have been several calls for the government to reintroduce the windfall tax especially that the copper prices have hit a record high of about US$9,100 per metric tonne on the international market.

However, the government has maintained that it will not reintroduce the tax because it will hurt the mining industry and discourage foreign direct investment.