By Patson Chilemba
Former national planning minister Lucky Mulusa has asked Speaker of the National Assembly Nelly Mutti to operationalise the office of the public protector by putting in place the necessary committee, into which findings of the office will be reporting.
In a letter to the Speaker dated June 09, 2022 and availed to Daily Revelation, Mulusa argued that in its current form, the Office has existed for six years at great costs to the nation without the taxpayers benefitting from the budgetary allocations amounting to a staggering total of about K60 million over the said number of fiscal years, saying opportunity costs lost to the public where these resources should have been alternatively deployed to contribute towards human development are many.
“I respectfully write to request that you urgently operationalise the Office of the Public Protector by way of putting in place the necessary Committee, into which findings of this office will be reporting. Madam Speaker values expressed in the constitution underpin government by law and not by men. Within the preamble of the Zambian Constitution, the Zambian people declare that, ‘…we the People of Zambia commit ourselves to upholding the principles of democracy and good governance…’ The above quoted declaration underpins the need for the existence of strong institutions of democracy and good governance such as the Office of the Public Protector and must be abided by without fail,” Mulusa stated. “The mandate of the Office of the Public Protector is to curb and redress grievances of mal-administration in Public Institutions, to enhance effective and efficient service delivery to the general public. This is in accordance with Article 244 of the Constitution of Zambia Amendment Act No. 2 of 2016. The Office of the Public Protector is further integrated in the National Development Plan Framework through Cluster Five with the aim of creating a conducive governance environment for a diversified and inclusive economy. The desired outcome of this integration is improved transparency through strengthening transparency and accountability mechanisms and strengthening Public Financial Management.”
Mulusa stated that from the above, one would realise that when the people created the Office of the Public Protector in the Constitution, their desire was to restrain absolute leadership within the parameters of the law.
“The establishment of the Office of the Public Protector was meant to mitigate occurrences of incidences of maladministration such as corruption, practices of regionalism, tribalism, ineptitude, as well as unfair treatment in situations where ordinary citizens find themselves pitted against the State. Furthermore, the Office of the Public Protector was created to help proactively whip leadership into submissive respect and fear for the People by constantly avoiding incidences such as state capture, abuse of office, poor service delivery and arrogance of incumbency amongst many other wrong doings,” Mulusa stated. “I wish to remind you that the office of the Public Protector is a creature of the Constitution and you have an obligation to abide by the provisions thereof. When provisions of the constitution start being ignored, then the constitution suffers the risk of growing higher levels of degree to which part or the whole of the Constitution becomes just a mere piece of paper enacted out of an exercise of compliance – that there shall be a Constitution. God forbid – for it becomes the first steps towards becoming a failed state. You will agree as well as I do that our constitution like any other depends on everybody especially the political elite for implementation.”
Mulusa told that speaker that protecting, sustaining and growing a government of laws and not allow it to be replaced with “a government of men” was the duty of everybody.
“Constitutional clauses must not just be statements of exercise of compliance but must be observed, implemented and practiced by all, most importantly those who have taken oaths such as yourself. May you also support calls for the Office of the Public Protector to either exist completely independently or fall under Parliament. The current arrangement where the Public Protector’s staff fall under the Public Services Management Division (PSMD), compromises its operations as staff investigating the very people who supervise them can be harassed through transfers to other government departments, demotions, or retirement in national interest as punishment,” argued Mulusa. “I wish to end by stating that when citizens are served by the Legislature, the Judiciary, and the Executive, they must always walk away feeling thoroughly and fairly treated to a growing and conspicuous sense of observance of the law of the land and not through an outcome of desires of men. I humbly and respectfully beseech your Office to act on this request, which is made in national interest. Thanking you in anticipation of a timely response.”
The letter has been copied to the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ), Chapter One Foundation and Good Governance Activist Brebner Changala
