Maravi

Abuse of resources must be stopped - Sichinga

Abuse of resources must be stopped - Sichinga
By Bright Mukwasa
Wed 20 July 2011, 14:00 CAT

BOB Sichinga says the current tour under the guise of inspecting government projects by MMD ministers amounts to an outright abuse of resources. In an interview, Sichinga who is also an economic consultant, said the on-going move must be met with full vigour by stakeholders to ensure the abuse of resources was stopped prior to the elections.

“In fact, all stakeholders should rise and tell the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) that this is an outright abuse of resources which should be recorded even before the elections. It’s the abuse of the law,” Sichinga said.

“If Dora (Siliya) goes round talking about Michael Sata and other political opponents, is that going to check on government development projects? We’re not refusing that there’s incumbency but that incumbency can only go so far. Right now that’s an outright abuse of resources, and the incumbency has been abused to unprecedented levels.”

Sichinga said the delay by President Rupiah Banda to dissolve Cabinet was a deliberate move to act as a conduit to siphon government resources by his ministers to disadvantage the opposition.

“It is a deliberate thing; it’s a clear example of abuse of office.

They’re going round politicking, campaigning under the guise that they are inspecting government developmental projects,” Sichinga said.

“The government is also saying politics should be issue-based, have they been issued-based? No. They have been personality-based. It’s clear now there is no more a responsible government right now, what we have is an irresponsible government that’s going round abusing the little resources which are scarce.”

He said it was disheartening that the current regime had been known to abuse the country’s resources with impunity and called on the civil society and political parties to excessively pressurise the government over the abuse of funds.

“We have not seen this level of abuse of resources in this country. For example the abuse of the state-owned media is unprecedented,” said Sichinga.

Vice-President George Kunda and his ministers have been touring different parts of the country claiming to be checking on government developmental projects when in fact not.

Labels: CORRUPTION, MICHAEL SATA, MMD, ROBERT SICHINGA

posted by MrK @ 10:16 PM