RENEWAL OF KINGSLEY’S CONTRACT AN INSULT TO CORRUPTION FIGHT
The Candidates’ Comment
One of the greatest mistakes that cost Edgar Lungu an election is his failure to make personal judgments based on common sense, rationality and morality in preference for defective advice given to him by those who surrounded the former President.
Not long ago, Edgar was every one’s darling. Between 2015 to about 2017, you could not talk openly against Edgar without attracting scorn from the general populace. Edgar was seen as humble, peaceful and down to earth person with the interest of the people at heart. Somehow, elements whom he appointed into various advisory positions turned Edgar into a monster in the eyes of people. The same people that celebrated Edgar begun to view him as selfish, uncaring and a reckless leader.
Edgar is today hated not because he is a bad person. You can judge some of his decisions as President harshly and even blame him for all the wrongs during his administration, but the truth is that Edgar is still a very humble, down to earth and good person. We are saying this because we would like to bring to the attention of Hakainde Hichilema the risks associated with getting every advice he is given by elements around him.
It is clear that Hakainde is being misled by some of the people around him. The President may be loved by the great majority of the people today but that love is not a birth right and can fade any time. It is love anchored on conditions, on premise that he does the right things as he discharges his duties.
We are saying this because we do not believe that renewing the contract of Kingsley Chanda, the Zambia Revenue Authority Director General is a noble and honorable thing to do by the administration of Hakainde.
You cannot on one hand say you are committed to fighting corruption and moral ills yet maintain Kingsley at the helm of ZRA. Kingsley is a huge stakeholder in tax administration in this country as Director General of ZRA and at the same time, he owns a clearing agency Nishati which does business with that tax authority. This is in itself is a serious conflict of interest. That same company has monopolized agenceship of clearing goods and services. It would not be wrong to assume that even the access of business by Nishati is because those that deal with it know that they are doing favors to the very person they will be paying taxes to, at the top of ZRA. If this does not look like corruption, then what exactly is corruption? We all know that clearing agents across the country have complained and protested against the monopolizing of clearing business by Kingsley’s company. Of course, this smells of the highest form of corruption which we do not expect any normal person to ignore.
Again, ZRA is one of the most corrupt public institutions where employment and promotions are concerned. If Hakainde is very serious about his pledge to fight corruption, his actions must be seen even at the level of public institutions like ZRA. Fighting corruption must not only mean investigating former ministers and their associates. There is too much filthy corruption at ZRA where workers are employed based on who they are connected to and, for the sake of women, whom they open their legs for.
If you do an audit of how employment and promotions are done at ZRA, you will discover that there a number of unqualified elements who have been moved to better grades on account of opening legs for someone. All this is happening right under the leadership of Kingsley. While we appreciate that ZRA has been exceeding its targets of revenue collection on several occasions, we believe that the success of that institution cannot be in any way credited to an individual person. It is the collective efforts of every one who works there. If Kingsley or indeed anyone at ZRA stopped working there, there is no justifiable reason to believe that the tax authority will stop meeting its revenue collection targets.
We are here to question Kingsley over conflict of interest and the corruption that lurks at ZRA. We are here to question Kingsley why he has allowed a situation where people are employed and promoted on account of whom they sleep with.
Why would Hakainde – on one hand claim he is serious about fighting corruption – yet on another hand keep at ZRA Kingsley who is clearly in a very compromising situation in as far as corruption is concerned? Why would Hakainde – on one hand claim he is serious with instilling morals in our society – yet on another hand keep at the help of ZRA a person like Kingsley who presides over an institution that hires and promotes people based on who is a girlfriend to those with the necessary power and authority?
SOURCE: The Candidates