Chiluba's acquittal is surprising, shocking says former Ambassador Vigtel
Written by George Zulu in Monze
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 6:03:48 PM
FORMER Norwegian ambassador to Zambia Terje Vigtel has said the acquittal of former president, Fredrick Chiluba on corruption charges was surprising and shocking due to the overwhelming nature of the evidence before the courts.
In an interview last evening, Vigtel said the evidence against the former head of state was overwhelming and the acquittal came as a surprise and was shocking to the outside world.
ÒI was surprised that Chiluba was acquitted and it came as a surprise because the facts which were before the court were convincing that the offence was committed during his regime [chiluba's] and expected that the rule of law would take its course but we should also understand and accept the out come because of your legal system,Ó said Vigtel.
He said late president Levy Mwanawasa fought any vices of corruption vigorously because he saw and felt the importance of fighting corruption in addressing high levels of poverty the country was experiencing.
Vigtel said although he was unable to comment on President Rupiah Banda performance in the fight against corruption, late Mwanawasa's government felt the importance of fighting corruption and meant taking the crusade through a number of initiatives and institutions created such as the Task force on corruption.
He said failure by government to show cause in the fight against corruption and the assurance for prudent usage of public funds in a transparent manner would discourage donors from funding various social and economical sectors which depends much on foreign aid.
Vigtel challenged Zambians to organise themselves in the fight against corruption in a vigorous manner because the vice was a disease which if not seriously fought would lead to economical suicide.
ÒThe rule of law and political will is needed in the fight against corruption especially that Zambia's poverty levels were too high and unsustainable, it is sad that despite Zambia being a rich nation with a lot of resources it has kept on being poor, your country is rich but the question you should ask yourself is that why are we poor?,Ó he said.
Vigtel said it was not acceptable to have a bigger margin of people living in abject poverty when the country had enough if not abundant natural resources and skilful manpower and attracted foreign well wishers to fund a lot of developmental projects, adding that political leadership should lead to the emancipation of the people from poverty and other socio-economic injustices.
He said Zambia was not at war to subject its people to such high levels of poverty and someone should look into the matter very seriously in order to give hope for the better future for Zambian people.
ÒI think Zambians should be able to initiate projects such as the Matantala programmes which look at the plight of the rural population in a particular area, such programmes make people to take responsibility of their lives and they actively participate in the economical development of the country even the issue of corruption can also be fought through using such channels because people will be able to ask how donor funds are being used,Ó said Vigtel.
He said Zambia needed a leadership which takes the welfare of the people a priority than a kind of leadership which he described as Òall time is to eat.Ó
Labels: CHILUBA, CORRUPTION, TERJE VIGTEL
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It's difficult to convince people there's economic growth, admits Maga
By Lambwe Kachali
Wednesday December 19, 2007 [03:00]
IT is difficult to convince people that there is economic growth in the country because it has not trickled down to the ordinary Zambian, finance minister Ng’andu Magande has said. And outgoing Norwegian Ambassador to Zambia Terje Vigtel said there was need to put honest and right people in the ministries to ensure proper distribution of national resources.
During a farewell family party for Ambassador Vigtel organised by former Task Force chairperson Mark Chona on Sunday, Magande said he sometimes felt ashamed to face Zambians because of poverty.
Magande attributed this development to failure by some ministers to implement and monitor their budget allocations. He said when he was first appointed finance minister, the Danish government wanted to give US $10 million to the Ministry of Agriculture for the treatment of livestock diseases in Western Province but they were hesitant to release the money because they were not sure if there were officials in the province who could utilise the money for its intended purpose.
Magande said although he was excited at the intention for financial help from the Danish government, he was afraid to sign for the money because he had not consulted the then agriculture minister Mundia Sikatana. He said after he discussed with Sikatana – who was also excited - the Danish government released the US $10 million to the Ministry of Agriculture for the treatment of livestock diseases in Western Province.
However, Magande said there was no one to carryout the treatment project but he recommended to Sikatana that retired veterinary officers should be used as opposed to the serving civil servants.
Magande said officials from the Ministry of Agriculture still went back to him and reported that they were unable to find retired veterinary officials. He said he promised to help in this area since he knew a Zambian veterinary doctor who had worked in Botswana for close to ten years and was now back at home.
“But surprisingly, this doctor came to my office two months later and said the people at the Ministry of Agriculture had refused to work with retired veterinary doctors, that they would like to use the serving civil servants,” Magande said. “And this gentleman said since ‘my country has refused to utilise my expertise, I am leaving for the UK to join my wife who is a resident there.’
That is how this gentleman left for the UK and since then, no one knows how that US $10 million dollars was utilised. But what is true is that the livestock diseases in Western Province have almost doubled now and I am ashamed to face that Danish ambassador who assisted us with the US $10 million.”
Magande said it would be difficult for the ordinary Zambian to feel the impact of the economic growth if the monies in various ministries were not used properly. He said although the country had reached a single digit inflation rate, people on the ground were still poor.
Magande said money in Zambia was not a problem but how it was being utilised. He said there was a problem on the distribution of money in various ministries to income-generating projects. He said the function of his ministry was to ensure that all the monies allocated to ministries in the national budget were released.
Magande said that it was incumbent upon respective ministers to monitor and ensure that money was properly distributed to designated projects.
He also said the Ministry of Education had a project to construct 25 High Schools across the country this year.
“Today (Sunday) is the 16th December, which means that we are remaining with 14 days before the end of the financial year…you go and ask the Minister of Education how many high schools his ministry has built as per allocation,” Magande said.
“For instance, for each pupil to have a single desk, it will have cost the ministry K90 billion but in this year’s budget the ministry was allocated about K900 billion and this money has already been released by my ministry. Also in the Ministry of Agriculture, for every agricultural officer to have a bicycle, they would need 2,000 bicycles which can cost the ministry about K8 billion. But the ministry was allocated about K1 trillion in this year’s budget.”
Magande said even if the government increased the tax base in the mining sector as proposed by some stakeholders, it would still be difficult to improve people’s lives unless the financial monitoring system was improved.
And Ambassador Vigtel said currently the government ministries were not functioning well. He said there was too much money laundering within the system.
“We have been giving this country a lot of money, but what happens to that money we don’t know. This is a matter of the media to expose what is happening in these ministries.
It is also a matter of the politicians to protest if the national resources do not reach the ordinary people in their respective constituencies. So you have a huge problem in this country,” Ambassador Vigtel said.
He said Zambia had the potential to grow economically and that there was need to strengthen the anti-corruption crusade.
“A lot of money is going out of the country illegally. Money that is allocated to alleviate poverty does not reach the intended people and poverty levels are increasing at a high rate. For you to fight all this poverty, you really need right administrators in these high officers to administer your resources.
Currently there is too much corruption, meaning you don’t have the right people in place. Also the law enforcement should be strengthened because as it is now, it is very easy to get involved in illegal practices and the police do not prosecute most of these people. You should also strengthen the law if corruption can be tackled effectively,” said Ambassador Vigtel.
Labels: ECONOMY, MAGANDE, NEOLIBERALISM, TERJE VIGTEL
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Corruption has made life difficult for many - Vigtel
By Sandra Lombe-Mulowa
Wednesday November 21, 2007 [03:00]
CORRUPTION in Zambia has made life difficult for many, outgoing Norwegian Ambassador Terje Vigtel has said. In an interview on Monday, Ambassador Vigtel said his worst experience in Zambia was being exposed to corruption. He said that corruption had affected development, the health and education sectors among others in Zambia.
"Corruption is one way of misusing development money, hence the poor are remaining poorer because they cannot access facilities (health, education, among others).
The money is used for other areas, so poverty is more," he said. "It (corruption) is undermining people's confidence in the system, government and all over."
He said if corruption was fought, people's lives especially the poor in rural areas, would be uplifted.
Ambassador Vigtel said his visit to some areas in Southern Province had proved that people had no access to information, newspapers, and medicines and had nothing to invest in and that there was also a shortage of finances.
Ambassador Vigtel said corruption was still a very big problem that was affecting the poor more.
"It is damaging both locally and internationally. The Task Force on Corruption has done well on 'big' corruption, but to 'small' corruption there is no progress. It's a shame that we still have petty corruption. We need to enforce the law and prosecute," he said. "It's damaging to the people, it's a terrible thing for the poor, the poor will suffer always. It's difficult to be poor in Zambia."
Ambassador Vigtel said that his worst experience was being exposed to corruption.
"People offering (bribes) should be the first to be punished since they are offering. You (Zambia) are moving well but there are still some stumbling blocks. If anyone is willing to pay anything, people will always continue asking," he said.
Ambassador Vigtel also said a visiting Norwegian member of parliament had been asked to pay money if the public bus she was on had to proceed at one of the roadblocks.
And Ambassador Vigtel said his best time was working with the people in rural areas.'
"I enjoyed working with the people in rural areas and how they stick to agreements. Some have stopped begging after we helped them with projects. They first had to contribute 30 per cent before we committed the 70 per cent. It's encouraging. You have very hard working people, but they need tools to work," he said.
And Ambassador Vigtel said despite Zambia making some headways in development, there was still need to vigorously fight poverty.
"Progress in the fight against poverty is a challenge. There has been good economic and macro development due to stable government which has stabilised the economy. But government has not been able to find ways and means of positive development, not so much change is being seen," he said.
He expressed optimism that in 20 years time, Zambia would be a fairly rich country.
Ambassador Vigtel emphasised the need to seriously invest in education if the country was to develop. He also said the Norwegian government had given Zambia an extra US $5 million as support towards the climate change programme.
"We got a letter a few days ago. We want to work closely with government on climate change," said Ambassador Vigtel.
Labels: CORRUPTION, TERJE VIGTEL
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Corruption fight still has many enemies -Vigtel
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Monday October 22, 2007 [04:00]
Norwegian Ambassador to Zambia Terje Vigtel has said the fight against corruption in Zambia still has a lot of enemies. In an interview, Ambassador Vigtel said there were still people who were tempted to be involved in corruption. He said it was not easy to say whether corruption had reduced but there were many efforts to reduce it.
"Many people still have an advantage of living in a corrupt society, for those people taking advantage of the situation are not willing to fight. The Norwegian government is fully behind the government's efforts to fight corruption," he said.
"There are two types of corruption, there is petty corruption which is done to meet small service and there is big corruption which is now being looked after by the Task Force, it is a lot of money to be saved and could be used for social services."
And Ambassador Vigtel said the donor community had been following the debate on the National Constitutional Conference with interest.
Labels: CORRUPTION, TERJE VIGTEL
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Norway demands government accountability
By Chibaula Silwamba and George Chellah
Thursday April 19, 2007 [04:00]
WE do not want our taxpayers' funds to be stolen or abused, Norwegian Ambassador to Zambia Terje Vigtel said yesterday. And Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata has accused Parliament of abusing its privileges by shielding suspected plunderers of national resources. Meanwhile, Sata wondered where President Levy Mwanawasa's fight against corruption stands amidst rampant thefts among public officials.
Commenting on the revelations of thefts and misappropriation of public funds in government ministries, departments and foreign missions, Ambassador Vigtel said his major concern was that the money Norway donated to Zambia should not be misused or stolen. "We always have to defend our Norwegian taxpayers' money that it is not misused or stolen. That is our very big concern," Ambassador Vigtel said.
He said there was a need to further strengthen institutions that fight corruption. "What I have observed is that you have institutions that are active; the Task Force on Corruption is doing a good job, the Auditor General - that office is active and Parliament is playing a role in fighting corruption," he observed. "What we want is to strengthen the institutions. We support the Auditor General's office and the Task Force on Corruption."
Ambassador Vigtel said Zambians should respect the office of the Auditor General and allow it to operate independently. "What is important is for people to respect the role of the Auditor General," he said. "In my country, the Auditor General is independent and we all have respect for the Auditor General. When they come we co-operate and allow them to do their work independently."
Ambassador Vigtel said there was need to increase capacity and competence of the office of the Auditor General. He observed that Zambia had abundant resources, which could be used for national development, but there was a lot of mismanagement. "You need to put in place systems to protect the resources. That is your biggest challenge," Ambassador Vigtel said.
However, Ambassador Vigtel observed that President Levy Mwanawasa's anti-corruption crusade had yielded some positive results. "We have seen some results, some cases are being exposed," Ambassador Vigtel said.
" There is a possibility of reducing corruption but the most important thing is to strengthen institutions to work and change the attitude of people."
And Sata has accused Parliament of abusing its privileges by shielding suspected plunderers of national resources.
"Dr Miti (Ministry of Health permanent secretary) and the Auditor General differed in public so why should the Secretary to the Cabinet's Joshua Kanganja explanations over the same transactions be held in camera? Why hold the sittings in camera as if you are discussing national security? Since when did theft become a national security issue? It's clear that Parliament wants to cover up these scandals like the K24 billion expired drugs," Sata said.
"...Parliament and State House are now conniving to protect some people."
Sata said parliamentary privileges to hold certain meetings in camera should not be abused. He said there was no justification for the Public Accounts Committee to have heard Kanganja in camera.
"Anyway, what do you expect when you have a Speaker who is protecting his job? Probably this explains why we need a better constitution to guarantee people jobs so that we reduce on such cases. One wonders why Parliament is protecting these people," Sata said.
"The money in question is our money, they are spending our money, it's not Chinese, Lebanese or MMD money, it's ours. Even the people who are dying due to lack of drugs in hospitals are our people.
Zambians need to be protected by institutions like Parliament." Sata urged Parliament not to intimidate the media particularly The Post. "Parliament is a culprit in blocking media reforms in this country. Mr. Mwanamwambwa should not even intimidate The Post. I know The Post and we differ sometimes and take each other to court but they are better than the government gazettes," Sata said.
"This Parliament has not been helpful to the governance of this country and it will be totally irrelevant."
Sata advised Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Charles Milupi not to embarrass the committee. "Let him take his political inexperience elsewhere and not in the committee. Let him realize that it's the culprits he is trying to shield who are responsible for making Western Province being the way it is today," Sata said.
"Western Province is a Cinderella Province today because of those same thieves so what is he shielding? What's his constituency's (Luena) benefit when he shields people suspected to have stolen resources? I know what I am talking about, I sat on the PAC and they can go to the records see how hard we were on such scandals."
Sata said all those involved in the scandal should be investigated and brought to book. "Let Miti provide answers to all these issues.
It's now Levy in the dock because where is his zero-tolerance against corruption he has been preaching about? Levy has been saying that he was fighting corruption so where is the zero tolerance against corruption? Sata asked.
"Thank God its him in office when there are these rampant thefts by public officials. This is a serious scandal and we need answers, when where these drugs procured? Probably because of corruption you may just find that they were bought after they had already expired. It calls for serious investigations."
And United Liberal Party president Sakwiba Sikota said there was need for a thorough investigation in the K24 billion expired drug case. "Who is responsible for this loss and what would be done to whoever is responsible for this drug? We are not talking about drugs worthy K100,000, it's not something that can be just brushed off. We are talking about K24 billion here," he said.
He emphasized the need for the enactment of the Freedom of Information Bill (FoI). "People don't realise what this bill will do. With the FoI in place, institutions can get information of what things are available. There is need for transparency, anything that concerns public resources means that it's for the public," Sikota said.
"So the people who need to know about those public resources are the public. There is need for total transparency."
Sikota said the K24 billion expired drugs case needed a full disclosure and total transparency.
"What comes to mind is that K24 billion in an economy like ours is a huge amount. Every Zambian has the legitimate right to know the full extent of how it came to be. How such a huge amount of drugs will be actually left to expire and how we continue to pay for storage for something that is of no use," Sikota said.
Labels: CORRUPTION, GOVERNANCE, TERJE VIGTEL
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