Maravi

Abuse of govt resources for campaigns

Abuse of govt resources for campaigns
By The Post
Wed 08 June 2011, 04:00 CAT

There is little doubt that being in government and in control of state resources and public institutions gives the ruling party and its candidates certain advantages that their challengers are unable to match.

Phineas Bbala, a public administration lecturer at the University of Zambia, is right when he says that Zambians will continue witnessing abuse of state resources and public institutions by those in power for party activities in the name of government projects for as long as there remains no clear separation of the two.

There is no doubt that the ruling MMD is using taxpayers’ funds for political activities rather than government purposes. Recently, government ministers were all over the country with government motor vehicles and support staff on MMD electoral and organisation business.

The taxpayer was paying for all this. This should not be allowed to continue. A thick line needs to be drawn between MMD and government business, and it needs to be done soon. Levelling the political playing field will require creating a thick line marking a distinction between the government and the ruling party. Lack of a distinction between ruling party campaign activities and government business creates a climate of abuse and unfairness.

We do appreciate that the party in power may enjoy the advantages of incumbency, but the rules and conduct of the election contest must be fair.

There are some legitimate arguments that it is difficult to establish a dividing line between when the president’s itinerary is purely party political since he also has to discharge his duties as a head of state all the time. It is further argued that the constitutional responsibilities of the president dictate that the incumbent shall be on duty 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

And this makes it impossible for the president to separate his party political responsibilities from his official government responsibilities. Whereas this may be understandable, what about his ministers and other party functionaries who accompany him using these and additional government resources and facilities?

And Bbala is calling for new laws to stop this practice. We don’t think the problem is really of laws.

It is much more a question of enforcement of the law. We say this because the electoral Act number 12 of 2006 and the Electoral Code of Conduct 2006 prohibit any person from using state resources for political party campaigns, but give the president and vice-president an exclusive right to use state resources. Section 7 (k) provides that “…a person shall not use government or parastatal transport or facility for campaign purposes; provided this paragraph shall not apply to use by the president and the vice-president in connection to their offices”.

Despite this prohibition, those in power have continued to use, or rather abuse, government resources and facilities in their election campaigns. In the 2008 presidential elections, Rupiah Banda and the MMD abused government resources and facilities with impunity. Rupiah’s team of image builders was moving in a Ministry of Health motor vehicle. Photographs of them using a government-owned motor vehicle were taken and published by this newspaper. But no action was taken against anyone.

In short, the law was not enforced in any way. Rupiah had friends from the opposition who were supporting him and they travelled with him using government resources and facilities – sometimes even having a second helicopter for those who accompanied him. Rupiah personally distributed sugar, mealie- meal, cooking oil and other things, bought with government money, at election campaign rallies. The then Attorney General, Mumba Malila, advised that this was wrong but they continued doing so in total disregard of his legal advice.

Probably there is need to understand the background to our people’s opposition to those in power abusing public resources and facilities in their election campaigns. In 1991, the MMD proclaimed that once in power, they would eliminate the unfair access to state resources by the party in power.

However, once in power, the MMD did not address the issue and deliberate misuse of state resources continued. After Levy Mwanawasa came to power in 2001, his government, in response to public demands, initiated electoral reforms to enhance transparency and level the playing field. This culminated in the passing of the electoral Act in 2006 and the Electoral Code of Conduct 2006.

Although there is this law, those in power have continued to operate as if nothing stops them from using public resources and facilities in their bid for re-election. The reason why the President and the vice-president were allowed to use government facilities even during their election campaigns were for security. But we have seen an abuse of all this. We saw it in 2008 when Rupiah used government helicopters and planes as if there was no restriction on their use.

His friends were flying around in these planes and helicopters as if they were part of his security team. Some of these were not even government officials. But he carried them around on his campaigns at additional costs to the taxpayer, taking advantage of these privileges in ways that directly support partisan purposes and disadvantage the opposition.

It cannot be denied that it is these abuses of public resources and facilities that have kept the MMD in power for this long, making it very difficult for the opposition to effectively challenge them.

This explains why our electoral politics have been one-dimensional, requiring a revolution or an uprising to change government. This defeats the whole purpose of having a multi-party political dispensation.

With such practices, we will continue having a political party dominating the politics of our country for a very long time even when they have lost the legitimacy to govern. The opposition should not be made to be effectively competing with the state when they participate in elections.

Clearly, there is urgent need to limit or stop these abuses of incumbency because it is not good for democracy; it is not good for good governance, transparency and accountability. We need to put in place mechanisms that can ensure the playing field is levelled and the abuse of taxpayers’ money for political purposes is avoided.

Labels: CAMPAIGN FINANCE, SEPARATISM

posted by MrK @ 6:36 PM