By Isaac Zulu
Civil servants ranging from directors, permanent secretaries and ministers have been drawing night and fuel allowances, even from conferences and meetings they haven’t attended, says Transparency International Zambia president Sampa Kalungu.
Speaking in with Daily Revelation, Kalungu explained that most senior civil servants and chief executive officers serving in quasi government institutions have been getting allowances from the Treasury even without executing their duties they are assigned to, which he said is tantamount to abuse of authority.
He said that the UPND administration should not pay a blind eye to this practice, which he said has the potential to “give room for individuals to continue plundering public resources while hiding in the veil of public service.”
“There is this type of corruption in the civil service where a guard, the secretary, directors, permanent secretaries and ministers know that they are getting night and fuel allowances even from conferences and meetings that they have not attended. And we have continued paying a blind eye to this scourge. And I think the President should be told that this is happening, even in the new dawn government,” said Kalungu.
Meanwhile, Kalungu has said that there is urgent need to amend the Public Order Act, saying the piece of legislation is an archaic law, which should be reformed so that it is in tandem with the prevailing situations in Zambia.
“The process (of amending the Public Order Act) that the government has initiated is very important. This law is archaic and was introduced during the colonial times. Native Zambians were restricted by the colonial masters in the way would talk. The Public Order Act was formulated to regulate who spoke, when they spoke and what they spoke about. So there are certain parts of this law that are outdated,” said Kalungu. “So we need to reform it so that it speaks to the current situation that Zambia is in. This law was constituted by people that thought it was right at that time. It is a British law… it’s actually not our law.”
Kalungu was, however, quick to state that certain provisions in the Public Order Act should be retained in order to maintain law and order in society.
“We cannot completely do away with this piece of legislation because it helps to maintain law and order in society. There are certain provisions that should be retained in order to regulate how society is programmed,” Kalungu said.
He encouraged citizens to be proactive and make submissions towards the amendment of the Public Order Act.
“TIZ is part of a coalition that will be making submissions to the government, through the structure that they have established, on the proposals to amend the Public Order Act. Government might not give you all the governance systems that you want. Sometimes you need to take the bull by its horn. As citizens, we must be proactive even government is not willing to provide us with platforms to make submissions to a particular cause,” said Kalungu.
