DR. MUSOKOTWANE’S STATEMENT IN PARLIAMENT THAT PF FAILED TO DEVELOP THE 8NDP GROSSLY MISLEADING
The Minister of Finance and National Planning yesterday informed Parliament on the process of formulating the Eight National Development Plan and went on to make a wild statement that the PF Government failed to develop the Eight National Development Plan having had all the time to do so. This statement clearly demonstrates that the Minister is clueless about the planning process and has not been properly briefed or has chosen not to listen or even read his own documents.
The planning process in Zambia is Governed by two instruments the National Planning and Budgeting Act number 1 of 2020 and the National Planning and Budgeting Policy which was approved by Cabinet in 2014. The Act provides overall guidelines in terms of the main contents of the plan including the consultative mechanisms to ensure that the outcome is a product of a participatory process. This is outlined under Part III of the Act. Unlike the long term plan (which in the Act is the Vision), the medium term plans (NDPs) do not have tangible time lines in their preparations in the Act. The timelines are however well elaborated in the policy document which he is advised to read together with the Act.
In the Planning and budgeting cycle of the policy (page 25) the last deliverable of the Government in power during an election year is the development of the concept note and broad policy direction. This should include development priorities as precursors to the finalization of the actual document.
The above processes were done and completed and the PF Government went further to come up with a draft 8NDP which provided policy guidance that the President used in his opening address to Parliament. It should therefore be noted that that key output of any Government in an election year with regard to the national development planning process is a concept note regarding the socio-economic development informed by the mid-term review process and other evaluation reports. The Government in power could also outline development priorities on the basis of a thorough situation analysis.
The main reason the policy was formulated in such a manner that a full-fledged plan should not be developed by a sitting Government in an election year was meant to avoid what transpired during the change of Government from MMD to PF where the PF Government did not fully own the Sixth National Development Plan as it was not aligned to our political part’s manifesto. This certainly would have occurred had UPND found a fully developed Plan as it would have been perceived as a PF document.
The Economic Recovery Plan is one case in point which is hardly on the lips of the UPND just like many other progressive policies left behind which are now being mutilated.
From the above the Minister should be aware that the development of the Eight National Development Plan is his responsibility and cannot look for failures elsewhere that do not exist. The role of the outgoing Government in an election year is once again not to develop a Plan but to undertake a situation analysis and provide a social economic update in readiness for the development of the national development plan by whichever party wins the election. A draft document could also be prepared to help ease the process of aligning the plan to the winning part’s manifesto. These processes were done and completed.
Given what I have outlined and is verifiable in the two key documents I have referred to, it is evidently clear that the Minister needs to take a back seat and take some quick lessons on how the process is done failure to which he will continue to mislead the nation and himself. After the 2016 elections, the PF found in place the same prescribed road map and used the materials the professionals had such as evaluation reports left by the MMD administration to develop the 7DNP after aligning it with the PF manifesto. The launch was done in 2017. My advice to the Minister is to move away from the blame game as this will keep on backfiring against him and his administration and get down to work than exposing his failures.
Alexander Chiteme
Former Minister of National Development Planning