Maravi

Government’s string of scandals is criminal - Shamenda

Government’s string of scandals is criminal - Shamenda
By Chibaula Silwamba
Fri 20 May 2011, 04:01 CAT

THE Rupiah Banda administration’s string of scandals is criminal and the next government must make it a top priority to investigate them, says Fackson Shamenda.

In an interview yesterday, Shamenda said the National Pensions Scheme Authority (NAPSA) US$98 million transaction with the Zambia National Building Society (ZNBS) to refurbish the latter’s Society House was scandalous, shameful and criminal.

“It is shameful that on one hand NAPSA wants to invest in projects which a good number of people are questioning and on another hand, you (NAPSA) don’t have the capacity to service the members who are retiring to which the same scheme was established,” said Shamenda, the former head of the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).

“World over workers’ capital has become an issue where governments are looking for those resources to use for development but in consultation with the stakeholders,” he said.

Shamenda said in the past, during NAPSA’s forerunner, Zambia National Provident Fund (NPF), the investments were sensible and profitable.

“Investment is the biggest activity of NAPSA because of the pension scheme.

NAPSA gets the money but it shouldn’t keep the resources in the bank because it can’t get returns so it NAPSA needs experts who are supposed to look at how much money is going to be invested so that it gets the returns to pay those who are retiring,” Shamenda said.

“The investments should make sense. The majority of the stakeholders, who are the owners of the money, besides the returns which will accrue, should equally benefit. In this case, the contributors – both the workers and the employers. These are basic business plans of the workers’ capital globally.”

He said the controversial projects that NAPSA had engaged in were unfortunate.
He said NAPSA must be reorganised, depoliticised and made to operate as purely a business entity.

Shamenda said the government must stop interfering in NAPSA’s operations.
“It is high time that the government realised that the success of the company does not necessarily depend on ownership but the business approach and management.

If you have the right persons in place, without political interference and transparency, the company succeeds,” Shamenda said. “There should be no invisible hand in the investments that are being made in the public sector.”

He said there were several questionable investment deals involving parastatals.
“I think it’s criminal. Any new administration which will come must make it as one of its top priorities to investigate what is happening at the moment.

We started with the Zamtel deal; it was very suspicious and nobody has explained. There has been a chain of these scandalous deals,” Shamenda said.

“You can’t run a government like that. No wonder there are a lot of complaints from a lot of Zambians. They say, ‘we are a listening government’ but they are running things with impunity. Nobody is listening even if people complain, it is business as usual.”

Well-placed sources in government disclosed that President Banda pressurised NAPSA to provide US$98 million to ZNBS for refurbishing the latter’s building in Lusaka.

However, NAPSA and ZNBS have failed to convincingly explain the transaction in which a Kenyan firm was allegedly single-sourced to carry out the works.

Labour minister Austin Liato dismissed allegations that President Banda influenced NAPSA in the US$98 million deal, adding that it was false that a Kenyan firm was party to the transaction.

Liato said the transaction would be managed through Zambezi Consortium but did not disclose the names of shareholders of the same entity.

Labels: AUSTIN LIATO, CORRUPTION, FACKSON SHAMENDA, NAPSA, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 5:06 AM