Maravi

It doesn't make sense to defend LAP GreenN's corruption

It doesn't make sense to defend LAP GreenN's corruption
By The Post
Thu 02 Feb. 2012, 13:00 CAT

LAP GreenN has been doing a lot of lobbying for support over the Zambian government's reversal of the corrupt sale of Zamtel. They have tried to get many Zambian opinion makers to speak for them, to oppose the Zambian government's repossession of Zamtel. We can only hope that no money changed hands in this campaign.

It is therefore not surprising that the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants on Monday opposed the reversal of this sale, describing it as "throwing the child with dirty water".

Hapenga Kabeta, the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants chief executive officer, said "despite the irregularities reported", the reversal of Zamtel sale might result in the country losing some public money to compensate LAP GreenN.

He further said that they "believe that LAP GreenN should have been engaged by the government with a view to reach a consensus that would give more benefits to the people of Zambia". Kabeta suggested that the shareholding of LAP GreenN in Zamtel be reduced from 75 per cent to, say, 49 per cent.

It is very difficult to appreciate why the Zambian government should be asked by the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants to go to bed, to get into business partnership with crooks, corrupt elements. LAP GreenN is not an innocent victim in all this.

They knew what they were doing with the Rupiah Banda regime. They were active and conscious participants in that whole corrupt deal. This was a Libyan parastatal company under the control and direction of the corrupt regime of Muammar Gaddafi. And accordingly, they got Zamtel corruptly - of course in collusion with an equally corrupt Zambian regime of Rupiah.

With all that known about the corruption of the Gaddafi regime and the equally corrupt dealings of LAP GreenN under the control and direction of that regime and the corrupt manner in which they acquired Zamtel, it is difficult to understand why any honest or decent person can ask the government of Michael Sata to simply leave that deal alone, do nothing about it or reduce the shareholding of LAP GreenN from 75 per cent to 49 per cent and continue to work with them as business partners.

We know that the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants has not been a strong voice against corruption and other abuses of power or public office in the way the Law Association of Zambia has been. We also know that they have been very silent over the anti-corruption crusade that was initiated by Levy Mwanawasa. They don't have a track record of speaking strongly against corruption. We don't have a reason for this.

Fighting corruption and abuses or crime in general cannot be reduced to a mere profit or loss issue. There is much more to fighting crime than making a profit.

If fighting crime could only be done on the basis of a profit and loss account, we would have long closed our prisons and we would have no police because this is not a profitable undertaking in the accounting sense. Sometimes it costs the state billions of kwacha to chase one murderer, criminal. But at the end of the day, the person whose life has been lost is never brought back to life - nothing is recovered.

We have heard this type of argument before. The defenders of corruption and corrupt elements used to band these arguments around during the Levy days. They used to argue that more money was being spent chasing corrupt elements than the recoveries that were being made.

We are hearing a similar argument over LAP GreenN and Zamtel today. So if one steals and the cost of chasing or recovering what he has stolen is higher than what will be recovered, then they should be allowed to keep their loot!

A different society doesn't operate this way. A different society operates on the basis of principles, values and standards and not necessarily on the basis of an accounting profit. There is a price to be paid for holding certain values, principles or standards.

And as we have stated before, the individual does better in a community with common values, principles and standards. And the individual does worse in a society without values, standards or principles. There is a price to be paid for the establishment and maintenance of a different society. We keep people in prisons not because there is an accounting profit to be recorded by keeping them there.

Michael and his government had no other different alternative to the repossession of Zamtel from LAP GreenN. There is no way LAP GreenN should have been allowed to keep the proceeds of corruption.

It doesn't make sense for anyone to argue that LAP GreenN got into a legitimate deal with a legitimate Zambian government and this deal, good or bad, favourable or unfavourable, palatable or unpalatable, should therefore be honoured.

This is not the issue. The issue is not whether the deal was favourable or not favourable. The issue is that there was corruption in the whole transaction. And LAP GreenN was aware of what was happening, was party to the corruption, to the fraud. They knew very well what they were doing.

It was not simply the case of corruption on the Zambian government officials' part only. Elements from the Zambian government and from LAP GreenN or Libyan government connived to steal Zamtel from the Zambian people. There is no amount of lobbying that will save this corrupt transaction and make it good.

If the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants sincerely believe that LAP GreenN did nothing wrong, why are they suggesting that their shares be reduced from 75 per cent to 49 per cent in a negotiated settlement with the Zambian government? Why should they be made to lose that which they legitimately, innocently and decently acquired for value? To suggest that, in itself is an admission by the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants that they know, in their heart of hearts, that LAP GreenN was not an innocent party, an innocent victim in this deal; they were accomplices.

There is need for honesty in our analysis of events. As David Pearce, the British Deputy High Commissioner, observed last week, the repossession of Zamtel sends a good message to honest investors in the world that this is the place to invest in if one wants an honest deal because corruption is not tolerated from any quarter.

Labels: CORRUPTION, HAPENGA KABETA, LAP GREEN, ZAMTEL, ZICA

posted by MrK @ 5:30 PM