Fundanga, Mwanza call for implementation of indaba resolutions
Written by Chibaula Silwamba in Livingstone
Sunday, May 24, 2009 7:12:47 AM
FORMER of the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) governor Dr Jacob Mwanza and incumbent governor Dr Caleb Fundanga have said it will be useless to hold ZIBAC, the indaba and other conferences if the recommendations from there are not implemented.
In separate interviews on Thursday at the end of the Zambia International Business Advisory Council (ZIBAC) meeting, Dr Mwanza, who co-chaired the meeting, said lack of implementation was a real problem in Zambia.
"I think it was right the President has clearly indicated that the civil servants should do something because if they don't implement, nothing happens and it's useless to have all these meetings, all these discussions and get very good recommendations which will help the country and we don't implement," Dr Mwanza.
"So I think there should be a checklist and who is the specified person responsible for implementation so that if it's not done there must be a way of sanctioning such people that 'if you don't do your work you must be punished' so that people know that 'I have the duty to implement. If I don't implement I will be responsible and I will get the consequences of doing nothing.'"
Dr Mwanza said the government and other concerned stakeholders should ensure that the resolutions were implemented instead of just wasting time and resources of conferences whose outcomes just gathered dust.
"Mostly in business you always have targets and you always have time when these targets should be met and who is supposed to take responsibility for implementing or supervising the implementation," said Dr Mwanza.
"So I think the government should also work in a similar way, where they have timeframe, clearly defined targets and the responsible officer to implement, in this case probably the permanent secretary and he should be told well in advance, 'if you don't implement there will be consequences and you will take responsibility for that.'"
And Dr Fundanga said there would be no need to meet if the recommendations were not taken seriously and implemented.
"Everywhere, if you are doing something you have to implement it. Obviously Zambia we are a poor country, we have to double our efforts if we want to catch up with those that are developed. This is the reason why implementation is important," said Dr Fundanga.
"Those [recommendations] were even in the Indaba, that's why even what the President was saying, 'implementation! Implementation! Implementation!' were said at the indaba, not here because in the end why do we meet? We meet so that we can work out a work programme to address problems. So that's the only thing I can tell you otherwise there will be no need to meet if we are not going to implement."
Meanwhile, ZIBAC advisors chairperson Lord Simon Cairns observed that implementation took a long period.
"Never is everything achieved; I think since the last ZIBAC some implementations have taken place," said Lord Cairns. "In my remarks I challenged the President, in a friendly way, to see to it that more of them [recommendations] are implemented."
Labels: CALEB FUNDANGA, JACOB MWANZA, ZIBAC
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Explain Dora's presence, Sata question Shikapwasha
Written by George Chellah
Saturday, May 23, 2009 7:53:12 AM
PATRIOTIC Front (PF) leader Michael Sata has said Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha must explain Dora Siliya's presence at the Zambia International Business Advisory Council (ZIBAC) meeting in Livingstone instead of questioning The Post's picture.
And Post legal counsel Sam Mujuda on Friday invited Lt Gen Shikapwasha to visit the institution and examine more pictures of President Rupiah Banda and Siliya.
Commenting on Lt Gen Shikapwasha's letter to The Post in which he accused the newspaper of doctoring a picture carried in Thursday's edition, Sata said there were serious questions that needed to be answered concerning former communications and transport minister Siliya's presence in Livingstone as opposed to discussing the picture.
"The question is was Dora in Livingstone or not? Did Dora attend that meeting or not? It's not a question of querying the picture but the presence of Dora at that meeting with the President," Sata said. "Shikapwasha must know that, this is a picture and not a graph so we can all clearly see it. I really don't know these days what Shikapwasha's problem is. The man must just prove that our dear lady was not at that meeting."
Sata said by questioning the authenticity of the picture, Lt Gen Shikapwasha was indirectly scandalizing President Banda.
"I don't know how Shikapwasha thinks. He has made a mistake to even talk about that picture because many people who did not look at it on Thursday or paid attention to it are now seriously looking for it. So that they see what Shikapwasha is complaining about," Sata said. "Shikapwasha is not with Rupiah Banda because by talking about that picture it's clear that his intention is to scandalize Rupiah. Like I said earlier even those didn't see the picture will start asking questions and begin looking for that picture. Shikapwasha didn't mean well on this picture."
And Mujuda, who is also Post deputy editor-in-chief and deputy managing director, dismissed Lt Gen Shikapwasha's allegations.
"We are in receipt of your letter of yesterday in which you are complaining about the picture we published in our edition of Thursday 21, 2009 showing President Rupiah Banda, Ms Dora Siliya among others," Mujuda noted in a letter to Lt Gen Shikapwasha dated May 22, 2009. "You complained that the picture was computer engineered. We have verified with the photojournalist who took the picture Mr Eddie Mwanaleza and he says the picture was published as it was taken and no one has tampered with it in any way. And Mr Mwanaleza says this is not the only picture he took featuring the President and Ms Siliya."
Mujuda said The Post had no reason to believe that the pictures were engineered in any way.
"We have no reason to suspect or believe the picture was doctored in any way and we therefore invite you and any experts at your disposal to come and examine the picture and other pictures in our possession and determine in which way they have been doctored," Mujuda stated.
On Thursday, Lt Gen Shikapwasha accused The Post of superimposing images on its Thursday edition's front-page picture where Siliya sat close to President Banda at the ZIBAC meeting in Livingstone.
Lt Gen Shikapwasha claimed in a letter addressed to Post managing director and editor-in-chief Fred M'membe that the sitting arrangement portrayed to the public in relation to the ZIBAC meeting in Livingstone on Wednesday had a motive behind it.
"I wish to bring to your attention government's displeasure and exception at your newspaper's use of a picture on the front page of your Thursday, 21st May, 2009 edition, of His Excellency the President in a deceptive manner. The picture is out of malicious motive because it does not portray the true situation," Lt Gen Shikapwasha stated. "While we may appreciate what technology has brought to both you in the media and other people, it would be wrong to abuse it just to satisfy personal agendas. Anybody or any photographer who was at that meeting would attest that your picture is just computer generated whereby the President is superimposed on a position he never took at the meeting, which is that of sitting next to former Minister of Communications and Transport, Ms Dora Siliya. One wonders what your motive was in generating such a picture."
Lt Gen Shikapwasha stated that government therefore demanded a reprint of the correct picture and an apology over the alleged use of an engineered picture.
Labels: DORA SILIYA, RONNIE SHIKAPWASHA, SATA, ZIBAC
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I like The Post’s stance for the first time, says Rupiah
Written by Chibaula Silwamba in Livingstone
Friday, May 22, 2009 2:41:56 PM
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda yesterday charged at Secretary to the Cabinet Dr Joshua Kanganja for not suspending a former Ministry of Health official, Henry Kapoko, and other suspects over their alleged involvement in the K10 billion scam in the ministry.
And President Banda said he liked The Post's stance, for the first time, that there was need to find out the person behind the thefts in government.
Closing the Zambia International Business Advisory Council (ZIBAC) meeting at Zambezi Sun Hotel, President Banda said he was being attacked over the K10 billion scam but when the civil servants were stealing the money he was not there.
"I am glad the Secretary to the Cabinet is here, you need to be a bit harsh because there are people who we provide resources to and they don't use them. To remove, we have to transfer them, and transferring is not removing, it's only transferring the malaise from one department to the other," President Banda said.
"We have the issue right now, the K10 billion for which I am being attacked as President. I wasn't even there when he was stealing those vehicles and building mansions. You ask the Secretary to the Cabinet or any of those who are responsible; he [Kapoko] is sitting in a ministry right now. There has not even been an attempt to suspend him, 'let's investigate and find out what was going on. Leave him; after all he is not being attacked, the one who is being attacked is Rupiah Banda.' So you have the Patriotic Front making, having a heyday, you have The Post having a heyday and UPND, all of them saying 'it's Rupiah Banda who has caused all this!' Rupiah Banda was not even there, he was working in his gumboots at the farm."
He said while he was being attacked over corruption in the Ministry of Health, the civil servants that were involved in the alleged theft were still in public service without being attacked or questioned.
"We know that justice says you are not guilty until you have been found guilty, it's true," he said.
He wondered how the civil servant [Kapoko], who is under investigation, acquired the vehicles and wealth he had.
"Unless he denies, 'No! They are not mine, it belongs to my grandfather.' But if they are his, you put him aside, investigate and suspend all the others who should have been there," President Banda said.
"It's not possible that someone can steal K10 billion from our assets alone. How did he sign a cheque? He is a human resource manager. So I think that we have got to be tough all of us."
He said it was difficult for a politician to say the investigation should move in a certain direction.
"If you want to move all the way, they say, 'No! No! If you move like this it will contravene this and that regulation.' Then somebody will come and will go to the courts and say, 'suspend everything you are doing until there is a hearing about this.' Then someone will come and do this and that. Just continue to cause confusion," said President Banda, who looked upset.
"We can't wait. At the end we will leave nothing for our children. There will be no legacy for the hard work you are putting in everyday, the efforts all my colleagues are putting in everyday just because of a few individuals."
Without mentioning the name of Kapoko directly, President Banda said there must have been so many people involved in the scam.
"I like for the first time, I think The Post this morning, for the first time I read something The Post saying that, what were they saying? They [The Post] said 'we must find out who is the cause of all this. There must be a syndicate'," said President Banda while smiling.
He admitted that there was corruption in most government ministries.
"These things must be there in every department and every ministry. Let us not be shy about it; accept it that corruption is there. We used to laugh at Nigerians and all these other countries before but today we are here," President Banda said. "We have to take action."
He urged all Zambians to unite and fight corruption together.
President Banda also said some people that wanted him to take decisions on tribal lines had suffered already though he did not disclose the names and what action he had taken against them.
"Let's be one nation, not groups of people, tribe, this and that. What about this one? I am the older nationalist; I am an older politician than many of us here and I want to tell you, during our time we didn't know who was from where. During [Dr Kenneth] Kaunda's time at the beginning, we also got lost along the line, at the beginning he chose the best people and the people didn't ask him, 'why is this one not from my place'?" President Banda explained.
However, he said nowadays there was so much tribalism such that for every decision he made, he had to think about such issues, which he did not like.
"My dream is to build a stronger Zambia, a rainbow Zambia. I don't like, some people have even paid for this, people coming to me saying, 'we cannot have access to this because they are different from the rest of the Zambians'. They are not fit to be in my programme. I won't tell you the names but some people have suffered because of that. We should all believe that we can only build this country together," President Banda said.
President Banda said Zambia was passing through a difficult phase.
"I was only elected for three years. Who was telling me yesterday, one of the ambassadors, that there is too much politics here, how true? That is because there is only three years so the others think that 'if he starts now he will not be able to do anything.' Come 2011, we will say he didn't do this but he was the one who was stopping me," President Banda said. "It's necessary for us to understand that we have a very difficult period, we have never lost a president in office and the procedures here are unlike in other countries, are very long. You remember the Secretary to the Cabinet how much work we had to do from the time our president got ill, to the time we lost him, to the funeral, and then after that 90 days, the law of Zambia, thus when Zambians started saying that 'surely 90 days then we just decide? Why don't we let the Vice-President just act as President?' That is a new debate coming up. So we have spent nearly one year without doing work."
And President Banda said there was need to implement the recommendations of ZIBAC, the indaba and other fora.
Labels: CORRUPTION, HENRY KAPOKO, MINISTRY OF HEALTH, RUPIAH BANDA, THE POST, ZIBAC
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Slow implementation of programmes delays poverty reduction - Hamukoma
By Joan Chirwa
Friday July 27, 2007 [04:00]
ZAMBIA Business Forum (ZBF) chairman Passmore Hamukoma has said the inertia on implementation of programmes negates acceleration of wealth creation. Hamukoma said the slow implementation of certain programmes could also delay poverty reduction and the increase in local and foreign investment.
“It is true we have made some progress in some areas but have had inertia in other areas. Is it the lack of understanding? Looking at those of us that have been given the task, the answer is a resounding no,” said Hamukoma during the just-ended 5th Zambia International Business Advisory Council (ZIBAC) conference in Livingstone.
“Then what went wrong? This inertia on implementation negates the acceleration of wealth creation, poverty reduction and the increase in local and foreign investment. The lack of implementation will ensure that successes in the reform programme elude us as a nation.”
Hamukoma said the private sector was committed to the task of enhancing economic development in the country.
“The Zambia Private Sector agrees that we should review outstanding issues and tackle them and pressing reforms should be tabled,” Hamukoma said. “The challenge for us is to remain resolute in our desire to see Zambia attain greater heights in economic development. We need to remain proud of achievements and find lasting solutions in those areas that we have not performed as expected.”
He further said the private sector fully endorses the realisation that Zambia needs a private sector driven economy.
“To achieve this, there is need for reforms both in policy and policy implementation,” Hamukoma said. “The PSD Reform Action Plan has had positive and reflective aspects to it which require careful thought if we are to see the programme through. This requires commitment to the cause, courage to challenge the underlying assumptions and the will to implement. In order to do this, there must be pragmatism and I repeat concerted will to achieve the deliverables.”
He said the private sector had in the last two years been in the realm of the PSD and spent its energies and resources in implementing projects under the working groups tirelessly.
Labels: PASSMORE HAMUKOMA, POVERTY, ZBF, ZIBAC
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Cairns, Levy differ over economic development
By Joan Chirwa and Mutale Kapekele in Livingstone
Tuesday July 24, 2007 [04:00]
CHAIRMAN of the Zambia International Business Advisory Council (ZIBAC) Lord Simon Cairns yesterday said Zambia had over the last three years made very little progress economically with regard to implementation of recommendations made by his council.
But President Levy Mwanawasa, who officiated at the 5th ZIBAC conference being held in Livingstone, differed with Lord Cairns over concerns that the Zambian government had not acted on some recommendations saying this would discourage investments.
In his address to the conference, Lord Cairns earlier indicated that a number of steps agreed in the 2004 report had not been acted upon.
“I am going to be very frank. We have had this range of meetings and have developed a series of ideas and reports with both the public and private sector. In a number of cases, we have reached sensible agreements but quite frankly, nothing much has happened over the last two to three years,” Lord Cairns said.
“There are 72 steps that we agreed upon in 2004 but have not been acted upon to date. Independent people that have been coming have said they haven’t seen a lot of work being done. There are quite a number of things needing change, although I know that change is painful and it doesn’t always suit everyone.”
But President Mwanawasa said he disagreed with Lord Cairns over his concerns that little had been done on recommendations of the ZIBAC council.
“I don’t agree with Lord Cairns that very little has been achieved since we started our meetings as ZIBAC. You yourself earlier acknowledged that Zambia is not what it used to be some 15 years ago. It is somewhat discouraging to some of us in the business of developing Zambia,” President Mwanawasa said.
“When something is good, it is essential that we should be patted on the back. There is need to ask ourselves why in some cases, implementation has not been possible.”
Among the issues recommended to the government by the ZIBAC advisors in 2004 was the liberalisation of the International Gateway (IGW), which is currently operated by the Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel).
A number of concerns have been raised over the current situation regarding the IGW, since private telephony providers in the country see the access fee of US$12 million as a protectionist measure against competition for Zamtel.
But President Mwanawasa said the private mobile phone providers should first lobby for the liberalisation of the IGW in their countries of origin.
“MTN is a South African company and they were not involved in the liberalisation of the international gateway in their own country but it is easy for them to fight for this in Zambia ,” President Mwanawasa said. “For Celtel, it is the same in Britain. Only three companies are using the international gateway and all these are owned by the government to some degree. Now I tell them that first of all, they should get the British gateway before trying to get it in Zambia.”
President Mwanawasa further blamed the slow implementation of some programmes related to telecommunications on delays by some operators to pay access fees to Zamtel.
“How can we be efficient if you are withholding money? MTN has refused to pay fees. We had gone to court and the court decided in our favour. However, MTN appealed, but they owe Zamtel US $25 million,” President Mwanawasa said. “And now they are saying the international gateway is not efficient.”
He urged the private and public sector to encourage themselves and recognise areas of successes in economic reforms agreed upon in the previous ZIBAC conference.
“There is a lot we need to do but let us not discourage ourselves, we are on the right course,” President Mwanawasa said. “While the delay on the international gateway is regrettable, government has the responsibility to undertake necessary consultations before acting on the matter as sensitive as this one (IGW). The motive of our policy is that we will not implement any programme which is not beneficial to Zambia and its people.”
And Lord Cairns further said the private sector in Zambia should be proactive through interaction with the government so that Zambia can enhance its economy.
He advised the public and private sector in Zambia to work together and move ahead in developing the country’s economy.
Labels: ZIBA, ZIBAC
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