THOSE PARTICIPATING IN THE HANDLING AND DISTRIBUTION OF UNEXPLAINED WEALTH WILL BE HELD FULLY ACCOUNTABLE.
By: Anthony Bwalya – UPND Member.
Zambia currently faces a budget deficit of around 20% of the 2020 national budget. That is close to $1.5bn adjusted for changes in currency fluctuations. We have not even accounted for government waste and corruption, which together costs this country in excess of $2bn per year. So, if our total budget for 2020 is $4bn, chances are it has already been wiped out and we are living on borrowed time.
This is how come the Patriotic Front (PF) of Edgar Lungu and Co. have failed to fund higher education, with over 100 Copperbelt University students excluded from writing sessional examinations for failure to meet the 80% tuition fees requirements. Had the PF regime released adequate grant funding to higher education, CBU management would have had better room to assist students from poorer backgrounds.
This is also why councils cannot deliver basic public services or pay workers’ salaries. The PF regime have been unable to disburse Local Government Equalization Funds as per requirement the Local Government Act, which is supposed to be 5% of total tax revenues in any given year.
We cannot even start discussing the tragic public healthcare situation with 20 maternal deaths in a week due to inadequate health infrastructure, critical care equipment and medication.
But while all this is going on, we have the Presidency peddling a political agenda anchored on possible criminality; dishing out money from unexplained sources in the name of Presidential Empowerment. Citizens have asked on numerous occasions, that the Presidency comes clean and clarify the source of this mega and unending cash pot the PF have been tapping into to fund the so-called PEFI and no one has ever had the grace to explain the source of this money.
Like in FTJ days, Zambians will one day require answers of the man in whose name this program is being carried out, including those of the men and women helping this individual execute this potentially criminal agenda.
A few days ago, Zambians saw the Presidency disburse nearly $30m of miracle money on the Copperbelt in less than hour, while government continues to claim zero latitude to fund students’ meal allowances.
As always, no one asked the right questions.
Zambians must be weary, of the avalanche of corruption money, printed money and borrowed money being fanned out by the PF for campaign purposes. The price of all of this will be paid by ordinary Zambians.
This is why we must be stern and clear in warning those participating in these programs, that a time for reckoning always comes.
If you are not sure of where the money is coming from, stay away from it. You will get burnt.