By Isaac Zulu
Former Luapula Central Province permanent secretary Major Ben Phiri has called on President Hakainde Hichilema to replace all permanent secretaries and district commissioners that were appointed by former president Edgar Lungu.
In a statement availed to the Daily Revelation media, Maj Phiri stated that the current serving permanent secretaries and district commissioners were aligned to the Patriotic Front and, if maintained in the UPND government, they will sabotage government’s implementation of the UPND’s development projects.
“Continuing with permanent secretaries other functionaries such as directors is going to be costly to the UPND government. Currently, we have a situation where ministers are policy makers, they craft policies while permanent secretaries are policy implementers. Then on the other hand, we have permanent secretaries who are PF “Paya Farmer” members. So you don’t expect them to be user-friendly, for lack of a better term. They will be saboteurs in the [implementation] process. That’s a fact,” Maj Phiri stated. “Secondly, even the Secretary to the Cabinet Mr Simon Kamwendo Miti should be replaced. Where in Africa have you seen the Head of Civil Service; in this case, the Secretary to Cabinet and, doubles as Private Secretary to the President? There was something terribly wrong with the previous administration. That’s why the Zambian people gave them matching orders on 12th August…they were chucked out of power. So Dr Simon Kamwendo Miti must be removed, actually. He may pretend to be loyal to President Hakainde Hichilema, but he will never change. Dr Simon Kamwendo Miti and all these permanent secretaries that were appointed by Mr Edgar Lungu, the former Head of State; must be removed so that they can go to their master and the PF, the Paya Farmer, who are dreaming of a comeback; which is not possible. It can never happen, even in a thousand years, the PF “ Paya Farmer.” So, let them go to him and continue lying to him, the way they they have been lying to him in the past. I, therefore, expect the President His Excellency, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Hakainde Hichilema to, maybe, flaunt the list of his permanent secretaries because I know that he might already have a list of permanent secretaries that he has put down. The earlier the better, because any procrastination will not be good for Zambians, as a country and, the ruling UPND in particular; because these people will never be in synergy with the pace at which the UPND government wants to move.”
Maj Phiri stressed that President Hakainde Hichilema has placed a very high premium on quality service delivery, adding that the current Head of State has publicly made his government’s commitment to fighting graft.
“Corruption has been the biggest cancer in the past seven years that Mr Lungu has been Head of State because they believed in pilferage of public resources [and] overpricing in tenders and procurement . Look at the [construction of] the Lusaka – Ndola [dual carriage way], the toll gate between Ndola and Kitwe, the airport in Ndola and many others,” he explained. “So for me, really; the President must quickly roll out the names of people he has appointed to be permanent secretaries in his administration so that it can be a complete chain. You have ministers who are UPND and permanent secretaries that are members of the PF.”
The former Luapula Province permanent secretary further stated that the UPND government should get rid of district commissioners who, he said, their primary role was to organise political rallies for former president Edgar Lungu and being actively involved in mainstream political party activities.
“Like I said, the UPND is not short of people with the requisites manpower. In any case, these are people that are appropriately learned…degree holders. They are schooled on various disciplines. So we need to move in that direction,” said Maj Phiri
