SOUTHERN Province minister Edify Hamukale says those involved in money laundering and dishing out resources in churches to look like they are hardworking are weakening government service delivery.
Chairing the provincial epidemic preparedness committee in Choma yesterday, Dr Hamukale said there was an increase in public officers engaging themselves in money laundering thereby depriving majority citizens.
“When senior officers engage in money laundering they are weakening government service delivery and [taking away] money supposed to be used to pay salaries,” he said. “People with questionable character are flushing stolen money in churches and you are there busy saying favour yaba [from] Yahweh. No, that’s not favour yaba Yahweh. You are weakening government service delivery.”
Dr Hamukale said there were some selfish people who were going round some companies soliciting for money to dish out to the public to look hardworking.
He said such activities posed a threat to continuity of production and employment of citizens in such organisations.
“Companies are being abused and they are giving money to those soliciting because they are being threatened. This is not good because soon of these companies will close down and even fail to pay workers,” Dr Hamukale complained.
He said selfish behaviour was being exhibited by those soliciting money without consideration of majority people without jobs.
“Out of this selfish behaviour from some people we expect criminality to rise because of lack of employment,” he said. “These people are threatening managers in these companies to give them money so that they look like they are working hard yet they don’t know that they are weakening the country.”
Dr Hamukale challenged citizens to report those using political party names to solicit resources from companies.
“Even if it’s me report to police,” he said.
And Dr Hamukale said Southern Province had become a marvel adored by everyone due to the good works recorded so far.
He said many people were yearning to be associated with that record.
“This is the time transfers come in, to come and claim victory. We know that already people want to start getting transfers to come and work from here because of the good work done by our officers,” Dr Hamukale said. “We can’t afford to have people wanting to shine on good record done by others. We don’t even want people coming to Southern Province to come and claim our hard work done by officers here.”
He said the province had put in a lot of measures to reach where things are today.
“We have zero audit queries not that we don’t have activities, no! A lot of activities are happening here. We have money but just because we put prudent management of resources because people no longer go on fan trips, money now goes to service delivery. We had cartels that we dismantled and now they are extra broke,” Dr Hamukale said.
And Dr Hamukale expressed disappointment that “stubborn and dull” individuals were finding jobs in the province.
“Why are you employing dull children? We have a large pool of sharp fellows in the province that can do better. Why are you recommending crooks with questionable characters for promotions? We have a lot of dull privileged and untouchable individuals in public service who can’t perform. Dull people are getting jobs,” he said.
Dr Hamukale also took a swipe at the provincial department of human resource for failing to perform and for keeping job vacancies secret.
“They are behaving like it’s their company but its GRZ. It’s all our company, all of us. We need information about job vacancies. They are only giving job opportunities to their relatives,” he alleged. “The provincial human resource department is poorly managed and here are some of the things I noted. No annual report, no quarterly report, no staff assignments, no training plan, no job description, no leave plan. And they haven’t submitted staff returns, no wonder vacancies are getting frozen in the province. They never had meetings since June. Most job vacancies are kept secret. No management committees since June. Some people now have to please them to get promoted or information about jobs. As minister I want total overhaul of HR department at provincial level.”
Dr Hamukale said the department was also failing to enforce discipline among public officers.
He said some employees had their salaries missing yet the department could not act by following up issues with banks.