Corrupt Road Contracts

Chishimba Kambwili’s call for a forensic audit of Zambia’s road construction projects deserves the support of all. But it won’t happen under Edgar Lungu’s rule because this is not a government that wants transparency and accountability.

Kambwili says Edgar must resign on moral grounds for launching the US$1.2 billion Lusaka-Ndola dual carriageway project which he says stinks corruption. Again, Edgar will never resign on moral grounds because his government was never founded on morality but corruption.

This is a government of tenderpreneurs out to enrich themselves from government supply contracts, bribes and cuts. They are enriching themselves from fuel procurement contracts and bribes. They are making a lot of money from the awarding of government infrastructure construction projects. In a word, they are making money from every government procurement of goods and services. Every government infrastructure construction project you see, know that someone in this government or close to them is benefiting, is eating as they say. And being at the helm of all this, Edgar must be made to account.

Kambwili is not talking from without. He was part of them and knows very well what is happening. They say if you want to know how the hippo lives, ask the crocodile. Some say it takes a thief to catch a thief!

And infrastructure development minister Ronald Chitotela’s attempt to explain things has not in any way helped matters. He says the prices of cement and bitumen had aggravated the cost of construction in the country. “Just cement alone costs five to six times higher than in South Africa,” says Chitotela. Why should this be so? It’s because the suppliers are also tenderpreneurs – it’s a syndicate! And because of the 15 per cent cuts and other bribes the contractors have to pay, the cost of the construction projects is pushed up. Effectively, the bribes or cuts are not met by the contractors; it is the Zambian taxpayer who pays them. The contractors pay them by inflating the construction costs and passing them on the Zambian taxpayer. So, it is not the contractors who are being swindled, it is the Zambian taxpayer.
This government is all about government contracts or tenders, bribes and cuts. That is the glue that binds its members.

And we have been warned about the consequences of having such a government. Frederic Bastiat said, “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time, they create for themselves a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
It’s no wonder State House has become the citadel of tenderpreneurship and corruption in Zambia.

This unending chase for money by the political leadership of our country, we believe, threatens to steal our democracy itself. We have used the word ‘corrupting,’ and we want to be very clear about it: we mean by it not the corruption of individuals, but a corruption of a system itself that all of us are forced to participate in against our will. It is said that dictators cause the world’s worst problems: all the collapsed states, and all the devastated economies. All the vapid cases of corruption, grand theft, and naked plunder of the treasury are caused by dictators, leaving in their wake trails of wanton destruction, horrendous carnage and human debris. A government, for protecting corruption only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay.

Said Nursi said, “The origin of all revolutions and corruption, and the spur and source of all base morals are just two sayings; The First Saying: ‘So long as I’m full, what is it to me if others die of hunger?’ The Second Saying: ‘You suffer hardship so that I can live in ease; you work so that I can eat.’

One of the biggest curses from which Zambia is suffering – we do not say that other countries are free from it, but we think our condition is fast getting worse by the day – is bribery and corruption. That really is a poison.
As Olusegun Obasanjo correctly observed, “Corruption, the greatest single bane of our society today.” We see corruption as a mortal enemy for young democracies. Corruption is a true enemy to development. And the worst affected from corruption is the common man.

We will be spending at least $1.2 billion on the Lusaka-Ndola dual carriage road and we cannot be sure that this money will be properly spent, as corruption and mismanagement in Zambia today is legend.

Whoever keenly and honestly looks at Zambia today will see: the ship is powered by corruption, stupidity, or prejudice. Today, corruption has won and justice has lost. Corruption cases involving powerful people in government or their friends are blatantly covered up by the political and legal establishment.
Today we have a president who, by constitutional protection, cannot be arrested and prosecuted for corruption no matter how much he plunders the country. Failing to indict a criminal sitting president sends the message that those in power are above the law. A president cannot defend a nation from corruption if he is not held accountable to its corruption laws. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process, he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
A system is corrupt when it is strictly driven by personal benefits, bribes and cuts of the leaders, not driven to serve the best interests of its people.

This government is so out of control. It is so infested with fraud, deceit and corruption and abuse of power. Money and corruption are ruining the country , crooked politicians betray the common man, pocketing funds and treating them like sheep, and they are tired of hearing promises that they know those in power never keep.

Corruption is the enemy of development, and of good governance. It must be gotten rid of.
Corruption in the construction of public infrastructure has particularly serious implications for a developing country like ours. Inappropriate project choice, high prices, poor quality, excessive time and cost overruns, inadequate maintenance, and low returns, among other challenges, impact negatively on economic growth and poverty alleviation. Corruption during the early stages of the project cycle, when projects are appraised, designed, and budgeted, may open up doors for additional corruption later on.

Efforts to improve transparency should focus on the procedures surrounding decision-making during project preparation. However, where corruption is deeply embedded, breaking the links among participants in the various stages of project delivery may be the only way to improving the governance of project preparation. But where the president is a key participant in the awarding of contracts, then transparency and accountability become impossible because no one in the government system can dare question his corrupt and suboptimal decisions.

As Joe Biden said, “Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It’s self-defense. It’s patriotism.” Nothing in this country is today immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power. Corruption is our greatest problem. Not poverty. Not lack of riches. Not tribalism or regionalism.
And corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.

There should be no compromise when it comes to corruption. We have to fight it. It’s said that a nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
We must weed out corruption and build a strong system of justice that the people can trust. To borrow from Thomas Jefferson, we can say, “Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.”

But where do the evils like corruption arise from? They come from the never-ending greed. The fight for a corruption-free ethical society will have to be fought against this greed and replace it with ‘what can I give’ spirit.

Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it’s set a rolling it must increase.
Unfortunately, our political system promotes nepotism and wasting money. This has undermined our legal system and confidence in the functioning of the state.
We have seen over time that countries that have the best economic growth are those that have good governance, and good governance comes from freedom of communication. It comes from ending corruption. It comes from a populace that can go online and say, ‘This politician is corrupt, this administrator, or this public official is corrupt.’

The fight for justice against corruption is never easy. It never has been and never will be. It exacts a toll on our self, our families, our friends, and especially our children. In the end, we believe, the price we pay is well worth holding on to for our dignity. We believe that transparency is the solution to our problem on corruption. And that is why the worst and first enemy of the corrupt is a free press. Corruption has reached an unacceptable level. It devours resources that could be devoted to the citizens. It impedes the proper carrying out of economic rules and penalises the honest and capable.
If we elect the same corrupt politicians every time, that’s a very clear message that we don’t want change.

Heed Pope Francis’ call: “Reject every form of corruption which diverts resources from the poor.”
Mast Editorial