Why Secretary to Cabinet Must Process Presidential Pronouncements through Cabinet Meetings
Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
Two weeks ago, President Hakainde Hichilema held a Press Conference at which he raised matters regarding national unity, rule of law, corruption and responses to the disaster.
He directed the Secretary to Cabinet, Patrick Kangwa, to ensure that his pronouncements were actualized into directives and programmes.
He said this was to ensure that unnecessary expenditure was curtailed.
Kangwa proceeded to hold a press conference and announced a ban on among other things, out-of-town workshops and directed that all government vehicles be parked by 18:00 hours to curb abuse and worst. He also proceeded to suspend driving competence certificates for civil servants.
The trouble with this approach was the procedural impropriety taken by the Secretary to Cabinet.
The Secretary to Cabinet required that the presidential pronouncements were processed through Cabinet Meetings so that the subsequent authority given, resulted in official policy.
It is at this stage that the Secretary to Cabinet was expected to communicate and convey the Cabinet Decisions.
Further, some of the measures the Secretary to Cabinet announced required the action to be occasioned by the Secretary to Treasury, Felix Nkulukusa, who the Constitution and the Public Finance Management Act No. 1 of 2018, designates to control revenue, expenditure and supervision of Controlling Officers.
And the matter regarding the withdrawal of driving competence certificates was a matter that hinged on condition of service and could not be withdrawn willy-nilly.
By jumping this process, Mr. Kangwa risked exactly what has happened to him.
At another Press Conference, now held this week, President Hichilema chose to override the pronouncement made by Secretary to Cabinet, over the use of Government vehicles.
He said civil servants must have access to transport 24/7 for efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery.
Yet Kangwa’s actions implemented and arose from President Hichilema’s own earlier instructions.
It therefore became very clear that Kangwa was thrown under the bus and publicly humiliated.
To avoid such embarrassments in future and to protect the Office if the Secretary to Cabinet, especially that we have a President whose rhetoric is extremely shifty like desert sand, it’s imperative that his pronouncements are processed and subjected through Cabinet Memorandum and subsequently, authority is obtained from Cabinet Meetings.
Although the Secretary to Cabinet is head of the public service and he is also responsible for the attainment of the general efficiency and effectiveness of the Public Service, deriving his mandate from Article (176) of the Constitution of Zambia Act No. 2 of 2016, he must remember that his role is that of, literally, a Secretary to Cabinet!
The public humiliation was of course uncalled for, what should have happened was to talk to the secretary to the cabinet so that he himself can go back and say he has reversed the issue of parking vehicles, that way he was not going to be thrown under the bus, now what happens is that he shall be reserved in exercising his authority because of fear of embarrassment.