By Richard Waga
The level of incompetent the PF administration has showed over the years has been a product of ignorance, arrogance and corruption. Here are the 11 key signs that Lungu and the PF administration are incompetent:
1. A GOVERNMENT IN DENIAL
– This is first sign of incompetence because if you can’t acknowledge a problem you can’t solve it
– PF has denied the huge debt, denied corruption, denied violence, denied defaulting dents and denied rising cost of living as their own making. As a result they are clueless on how to rectify these issues
2. FAILURE TO RESTRUCTURE NATIONAL DEBT
– Despite all the expertise the country possesses, PF were so incompetent they had to hire consultants from France, who don’t know jack about Zambia apart from what they google.
– This was an insult to technocrats at MOF who were effectively being told, “You are only good at sipping coffee”
3. SUSPENSION OF SINO HYDO OPERATIONS FOR 3 YEARS OVER UNFOUNDED CORRUPTION ALLEGATIONS
– Most Zambian due to a short attention span have forgotten that the Kafue George Lower Hydro Project was commissioned by RB a few months before 2011 elections and late Sata suspended it for over 2 years due to his imaginary suspicions.
– Instead of completing the project in 2015, it costed us extended years of load shedding, losing billions in GDP and increased financing costs
4. FAILURE TO EXPLOIT FAVOURABLE COPPER PRICES AND LOW OIL PRICES
– One thing the EAZ and most economist fail to highlight is the fact the PF is the first regime in our history to enjoy stable copper prices and historically low crude oil prices through out there reign. Did they take advantage of this? No. They still blamed HH for the kwacha depreciation.
5. IMPLEMENTING PROJECTS WITHOUT FEASIBILITY ASSESSMENT
– There were good reasons why Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane kept the Eurobond proposal on hold for months and months. On of them was to assess the bond market and other was to identify viable investments.
– When PF saw the Eurobond proposals they quickly went to Europe and borrowed at a cost that was 3 to 4 times that on the concessional loans, now today 41% of our budget is going towards debt service because of this recklessness.
– How can this indebtedness happen in just less than 10 years and a few years after attaining debt cancellation? Incompetence
6. NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE
– The implementation of the National Health insurance was one of the most poorly consulted and shambolic programme. At the moment sensitization is even less than 20% and participation far less.
– Despite this programme, we have the worst scandals at Ministry of health, which do not only reduce public confidence but also make the health insurance programme financially not viable and risky.
7. ATTEMPT TO IMPLEMENT AN UN-RESEARCHED SALES TAX
– The mere fact that the MOF plagiarized the USA sales tax act and forgot to remove snow sledges in their Sales tax proposal document was telling as to how unresearched the proposal was.
– Imagine basing a tax system on the US economy, which is fundamentally different from ours in terms of nature of transactions and level of wealth.
8. FAILURE TO CONDUCT THE 2020 NATIONAL CENSUS
– The minister of planning gave a very ignorant argument that the census was not conducted because the government did not have money. This is the same as saying that, I did not apply for a loan because I did not have a pen to fill out an application form.
– The census informs developmental policy. Most policy makers, investors, businessmen, researchers, donors, lenders, economists were waiting for a census to revive their developmental ideas and efforts, imwe “ati we can’t!”
– How will you find money if you have no census data to justify your programmes and projects?
9. STOCKING OF EXPIRED DRUGS WHILE HOSPITALS RUN OUT OF DRUGS
– The heading is self-explanatory. One needs to be the meanest citizen to support a government which works so hard to appear incompetent and corrupt.
10. RESPONSE TO THE DEFECTIVE DRUGS
– The natural and moral reaction to the supply of defective drugs was for government to assess the health of people who took these drugs. A medical investigation or pharma assessment or adverse reaction investigation should have been conducted to ensure safety of citizens. No on in this government even considered the risks.
– All PF cared about was damage control and protecting Dr. Chilufya from prosecution.
11. IRRATIONAL SPENDING
– We spent $5m on debt consultants, $42m on firetenders, $200m on solar milling plants that don’t work and more inflated deals such as honeybee, ambulances, digital migration, Lusaka- Ndola high way. The money stolen from these deals would have transformed a lot of districts by investing in agriculture and processing sectors.
The only weakness we have as a people is that we don’t see how lives are being impacted by this incompetence. We are normalizing incompetence, such that even the culprits are unafraid or unashamed of showing it. We are even defending thieves by saying that we should learn to appreciate them as if they are doing us a favour. We hired them and pay them handsomely, it is not a favour Lungu or PF are doing for us. Si ndalama za nyoko ba PF!
The PF administration is simply the most incompetent administration in the history of Zamba, northern Rhodesian and all the Zambian Kindgoms.