By Isaac Zulu
Acting secretary to the Cabinet Patrick Kangwa has challenged newly appointed permanent secretaries and other government officials to be accountable and transparent in their discharge of duties.
Speaking when he officially opened the Integrity Committee for Chief Officers’ at Mulungushi International Conference Centre on Thursday, Kangwa stated that the UPND government wants to achieve zero audit queries are attainable; further urging the newly appointed controlling officers to ensure that there is no corruption.
“As you are already aware, the republican president, in his speech during the official opening of the 1st session of the 13th National Assembly, categorically stated that the corruption scourge has not only depleted the country’s much-needed resources, but, has also robbed the country of the opportunity for meaningful economic growth. The Republican President further stated that his administration will ensure that there are no sacred cows in the fight against corruption. This is a challenge to us all to ensure that our institutions are protected from the scourge by identifying and sealing all loopholes for corruption within our systems. our institutions need to move towards achieving zero audit queries, and this can only be achieved if the necessary interventions are implemented to ensure processes and procedures are followed for improved, efficient and effective service delivery,” said Kangwa. “I wish to mention here also that, during the induction of the newly appointed permanent secretaries, from Tuesday to Wednesday, this week, the need to achieve zero audit queries was comprehensively discussed. am sure, by 2023, audit queries will be a thing of the past in our government institutions. This is attainable because we have examples of ministries and departments that have had zero audit queries before. the induction programme for permanent secretaries covered all important aspects in terms of ensuring that the scarce national resources are targeted to the needy areas for the benefit of the Zambian people. this is our full responsibility. I, therefore, challenge all the newly appointed permanent secretaries and other senior government officials, to be accountable and transparent in the execution of your duties like we discussed during the induction programme. ensure that you adhere to the laid down procedures in the discharge of your official duties.”
Kangwa continued.
“With this strong stance on the fight against corruption from government, it is important that each and every one of us individually, takes an active role in the fight against corruption and do so with vigour and with full knowledge that we are in these executive positions not for our own benefit, but for the good of the Zambians out there. the combating and prevention of corruption cannot be left to law enforcement agencies like the anti-corruption commission alone, but must be embraced by all of us. we need to ensure that we all participate in the fight against corruption and guard against misuse of public funds.”
Kangwa further stressed that the new dawn government attaches great importance to the fight against graft in its effort to ensuring that there is zero-tolerance against corruption.
“In 2003, the government of the republic of Zambia instituted the national governance baseline survey whose purpose was to ascertain the state of governance in the country. The survey report revealed, among other findings, that corruption was a serious problem in Zambia and the efforts to fight it were fragmented and in conflict. therefore, the survey report led to the development of the national Anti-Corruption policy, in which the integrity committee programme is identified as one of the key measures in preventing corruption at institutional level,” explained Kangwa. “May I hasten to remind you that the new dawn government attaches great importance to the fight against corruption as demonstrated by its zero-tolerance policy towards corruption. with the demonstrated commitment by the president of the republic of Zambia, Mr. Hakainde Hichilema, and his government, we are presented with an opportunity to confront the scourge aggressively, and with renewed vigour. The president has emphasised that his new dawn administration will adhere to the rule of law and as such, it is incumbent upon us all to join the president in this noble course.”
The acting secretary to the Cabinet also stressed that.
“As chief executive officers and controlling officers, you have a huge responsibility on your shoulders to curtail the loss of public resources through bad procurement practices, fraud, theft and embezzlement among others. It is for this reason that today’s forum will include discussions around effective procurement management, public finance management, financial regulations, as well as transformational leadership. The people of Zambia expect nothing but quality leadership from us all, and it is through such interactions that we identify and implement strategies that help strengthen systems for good governance,” he said. “This forum is being held at a time when just on Monday, 29th November, 2021, the President called for an extraordinary meeting here at Mulungushi International Conference Centre, with cabinet and provincial ministers and permanent secretaries, at which his message was very loud and clear, that we should stop the bleeding where procurement of goods and services is concerned in government. in short, the president wants goods and services procured should be of the right cost, good quality and with timeliness in terms of delivery. To show how passionate the President is in ensuring that measures are devised to respond to shortcomings in the area of public procurement, the president attended the meeting from the beginning up to the end. We need to applaud him for that.”
Kangwa further implored the Anti-Corruption Integrity Committee to take a strong stance on the fight against corruption.
“This year’s forum will see the introduction of an award system to recognise best performing integrity committees in different categories. as explained earlier by the acting director general of the anti-corruption commission, this initiative, however, is not meant to shame any under-performing institutions, but rather, should be perceived as a self-reflective mechanism to help enhance integrity development efforts in your respective institutions,” explained Kangwa. “To this effect, I am delighted to note that so far 123 institutions across the country have established Integrity Committees. Let me take advantage of the presence of the media here, to encourage newly created ministries to establish integrity committees in their institutions. I also encourage more private sector institutions to come on board. I urge you all to freely reflect on the performance of the integrity committees programme.
