Maravi

Treating unretired imprest as theft

Treating unretired imprest as theft
By The Post
Tue 31 Jan. 2012, 13:00 CAT

IF our civil servants and other public workers had the honest and responsible attitude of Dr Peter Mwaba, our government would accomplish a lot for our people, especially the poor. There is rampant abuse, misuse, misapplication and misappropriation of public funds using all sorts of schemes that have been perfected and made acceptable over time.

The issue of unretired imprest has been in the Auditor General's report every year. And the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee has been raising issues every year over unretired imprest.

We are not talking about small amounts here, we are talking about billions in unretired imprest every year which now may be accumulating to trillions. Nothing seems to be working in the attempts to address this issue. Why? The truth is imprest, travel allowances, sitting allowances, per diems have become the accepted way for civil servants and other public workers at all levels to make money.

We have heard frightening stories of civil servants getting imprest for say 14 days to go to Mansa to do some government work. And that work finishes in say 10 days and there is imprest in their hands for four days which they don't want to retire. And they simply disappear until the end of the 14 days, manufacture some receipts and keep the money.

We have also heard stories of people being on the move all the time to earn travel allowances. Senior civil servants are earning allowances for workshops or seminars they have never attended - envelopes are simply handed over to them for every workshop or seminar being conducted under their departments or ministries. We have also heard of stories of senior government officials who attend two or three workshops or seminars in a day and collect allowances from all of them.

How? They just make appearances at this and that workshop or seminar and collect their allowances. There are stories of senior government officials attending more than 365 workshops or seminars in a year. Audits have revealed this. How possible is this? It is simply a question of banditry, of abuse, of corruption.

There are also many senior government officials who sit on boards of many state-owned institutions falling under their ministries or departments and collecting sitting allowances from each one of them. At the end of the month, these civil servants or public workers earn more from these allowances than they do from their salaries.

They are not even interested in their salaries. And indeed, this may partly explain why the salaries of our civil servants and other public workers are generally low but still the public sector remains a very attractive employer. But of course there are others in the civil service who hardly access these allowances, these per diems and are seriously disadvantaged. A more just, fair and equitable manner of remunerating our civil servants and other public workers must be found.

We have to do away with these allowances that are in most cases unfairly, inequitably and arbitrarily distributed. There is need to pay our civil servants and other public workers decent salaries and do away with these numerous allowances that are doing nothing to improve the quality and quantity of public work.

Instead, they are simply undermining public service. These allowances have simply corrupted the whole of our governmental system. We can't run government work on travel, sitting allowance and per diems.

People are not working, they are simply moving around collecting allowances from this and that travel, from this and that workshop or seminar, pretending to be working when they are simply making money.

Government business cannot be run in an efficient, effective and orderly manner in this way. This is a recipe for anarchy, for corruption and other abuses.

And Michael Sata's irritation with the extravagance of workshops and seminars is understandable. Whereas we have had presidents who were making money from being on the move all the time, Michael is simply earning a salary. We remember Frederick Chiluba telling a press conference that he made his money from travel allowances. How can this be the way for a president to make money?

We also know that public money is being stolen by civil servants colluding with owners of lodges, motels and hotels. The rates for everything are inflated and cash payments are made to the organisers, the facilitators by the owners of these lodges, motels or hotels.

There is a syndicate here. And this explains, to some extent, why those who work for the government are today richer than those in the private sector when their salaries are so low.

We are not saying that our civil servants should not earn decent salaries. We want them to earn decent salaries but in an honest, transparent and accountable manner. Government workers have a strict duty to give the Zambian people, the taxpayers, efficient and conscientious work for which they have a right to a just salary.

They have to work conscientiously. And they are entitled to just working conditions. We have a duty to give public employees an honest salary and then ask them for more substantial support. The dignity of work must be recognised with just wages.

We cannot waste public money. We cannot allow public money to benefit just a few. There are many people in our country today who each day cannot meet basic needs necessary for a decent human life.

And Michael wants public funds to be used to meet the basic needs necessary for every Zambian to have a decent human life. Michael sees this as a strict duty of justice - that is not to allow fundamental needs to remain unsatisfied. Living conditions must be improved, especially for the low income earners. This cannot be achieved if public resources are wasted in this way.

And moreover those who are collecting more allowances from the government are the least in delivery. All they do is posture around pretending to be working when they are nothing but vultures, vampires, sucking the blood of the suffering masses of our people. Robbing the poor, abusing public funds in order to enrich oneself will lead only to loss. We must be responsible in the use of public funds.

Peter's suggestion to criminalise unretired imprest and treat it as theft may appear extreme but one can understand the despair, the frustration and the indignation that these abuses are generating.

Peter's feelings are in tune or in tandem with those of Michael - there is urgent need to stop these abuses if the poor of our country are to see a reversal of fortunes and have more money in their pockets.

Labels: AUDITOR GENERAL, CIVIL SERVANTS, CORRUPTION

posted by MrK @ 10:18 AM