Maravi

Mwaanga willing to serve in government

Mwaanga willing to serve in government
By Ernest Chanda
Wed 18 Jan. 2012, 13:58 CAT

VERNON Mwaanga says he is willing to serve in President Michael Sata's government if called upon. And Mwaanga says he has never been linked to abuse of public resources in his 38-year political career because of his adherence to financial and civil service regulations.

In an interview yesterday, Mwaanga who has so far served in four successive governments, said he considered national interests over personal interests.

Mwaanga served in the immediate post-independence government of first Republican president Dr Kenneth Kaunda, and later in the Frederick Chiluba, Levy Mwanawasa and Rupiah Banda administrations.

He said it was his patriotic duty as a citizen to offer a service to his country.

Prior to elections, the PF suspected that he was behind their loss of previous elections and that Mwaanga had a hand in the rigging process, an allegation he denied.

When asked if he was willing to serve in President Sata's government if appointed, Mwaanga who predicted Rupiah Banda's victory in September last year and President Sata's loss said: "It will depend on what he wants me to do because at the end of the day I believe that our country Zambia is greater and bigger than anyone of us. I have always served this country since 1964, and I've served successive governments over the years. And if I'm asked to make a contribution to Zambia, this is my country I've no other country to go and I've no other country to serve. I've always said that I can never turn my back on Zambia," said Mwaanga.

Just a few days before last year's elections, Mwaanga released his own opinion poll indicating victory for Banda.

Mwaanga claimed Banda would win the September 20 presidential election by between 44 and 46 per cent and gave President Michael Sata between 34 and 36 per cent and UPND's Hakainde Hichilema between 13 and 15 per cent.

And Mwaanga said he had always come out clean on corruption issues because he drew a line between his political office and that of the civil service.

He said while some of the people he worked with had been prosecuted and convicted, he walked head high because of discipline.

"No secrets at all, it's just integrity. There has to be integrity in public service. And whenever I've been in government, I have respected that there are procedures relating to awarding of contracts relating to tenders and relating to retirement of imprest which as a minister or government official I did get from time to time. And I did my best to ensure that I worked within the rules," he said.

"And I think I've tried my best to respect government financial regulations and to respect the procedures; and also to try as much as I can to avoid a conflict between myself as a minister or policymaker and the civil servants because it is civil servants who ultimately run the administrative structures of government."

Mwaanga said if one worked within the rules, one would find that life became easier.

He said he also respected the fact that when money was involved, there were certain procedures which had to be followed.

Mwanga explained that he was also aware of certain procedures which had to be followed in terms of the relationship between ministers and permanent secretaries.

"And that the permanent secretary had wide administrative powers which as a minister I could not interfere with. In the same way they could not interfere with my policy functions. And I always thought of a middle role to play between myself and officials that I worked with. We guided each other along the way and we made sure that government procedures were respected," Mwaanga explained.

"And I think that it is important, especially now that we've had a change of government for the new ministers who have come into government, some of them have never been in government before, to respect this division of labour between the ministers and the civil servants and the different roles which they play. There's a ministerial handbook which was given to us as ministers or officials from the very time when I started serving as a minister 38 years ago. But these have to be read very carefully together with the financial regulations to understand what is involved in terms of handling public funds."

Asked if he had at any time given advice to those he worked with, Mwaanga answered in the negative.

"I didn't because we were all given the same handbook. We were given exactly the same handbook I handled; it's called a Ministerial Handbook.

It outlines all these procedures in their detail in terms of the working relationships, who has the powers to authorise funds and so on. And I respected these powers and these demarcations; I did not interfere with financial division," he said.

Asked why some of his colleagues were prosecuted and convicted although reading the same rules, Mwaanga cited lack of respect for procedure and regulations.

Mwaanga said he always tried to work within the authority given to him.

"And also in the procedures laid down in terms of awarding tenders, whereas that time it was the Zambia National Tender Board, now the Public Procurement Authority, I never interfered with those issues because they didn't follow under my purview. I tried to work within my authority and the authority which was given to me by the president and by Parliament, and by those regulations because unless public officials observe rules and regulations which apply in government, they quickly bring that government into disrepute and it really undermines public confidence in public officials also and in ministers," said Mwaanga.

"My advice is for them to read these regulations and study them very carefully and make sure that they adhere to them; and ensure that they respect the demarcation of duties between their permanent secretaries and themselves because in the final analysis financial matters are not handled by ministers. At least they're not supposed to be handled by ministers; they're supposed to be handled by permanent secretaries who are the controlling officers. These matters don't belong to political leaders, they belong to civil servants, they belong to permanent secretaries who are the controlling officers, who appear before parliamentary committees to answer queries."

Labels: MICHAEL SATA, MMD, PF, VERNON MWAANGA

posted by MrK @ 12:31 PM