The Civil Servants and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (CSAWUZ) has welcomed calls that civil servants should declare their assets and liabilities.
Union Vice president Beatrice Nyirongo says such a move is welcome as it will assist government in its quest to fight corruption and protect public funds from being misapplied at all levels.
Mrs. Nyirongo told ZANIS in an interview that in light of the rampant corrupt case in government institutions, there is need for government to put in place stringent measures aimed at protecting public funds.
She explained that by declaring assets, most workers in public offices will be scared to engage themselves in corrupt practices because any unexplainable rise in their assets would attract the attention of law enforcement agents.
Mrs. Nyirongo added that by declaring of assets and liabilities government would have the power to question any suspicious or excessive earnings thereby enhancing transparency and accountability in the way public funds are spent.
She pointed out that despite public workers having certain privileges such as getting money from tours and other allowances, there is need for government to continue ensuring that people get exactly what rightfully belongs to them.
Mrs. Nyirongo further disclosed that by having such a mechanism in place, pubic resources will be administered accordingly and therefore benefiting all workers and a country as whole through developmental projects.
She also cited the recent K10 billion scam involving public funds at the Ministry of Health as one of the cases which would have been avoided if the people involved had there assets and liabilities declared.
The National Constitution Conference has adopted a clause that states that all government workers holding public offices should be declaring their assets and liabilities.
ZANIS
It is a welcome suggestion but knowing how some crooked civils ervants have been operating much has to be done. It is not uncommon to have people acquire property through fraudulent means and have it registered in a relatives name to escape being noticed. So, it is still a dodgy situation.
This is a quite controversial move. I don’t think it is right to force someone to declare his assets against his own will. It has something to do with protection of one’s private property.
However, if there’s a villa in Bahamas which belongs to a certain civil servant, of course that’s a different case.
In as much as those mechanisms can be put in place, the same civil servants asking for the same will have other means in place of doing their theft. We must also remember that we differ on how we manage our resources that includes allowances meaning some even after declaration of their wealth by the time they leave office will have more than what they came with and others will leave with less than what they came with.
The only problem is they will have too create another ministry to scrutinise the civil servants submissions. Wonder if they will go for a weighting system…. lets see Hammer versus House in Kaunda square…hhhmmm which should we investigate? (bet they will come up with House in Kaunda square 90% of the time.
that would be the day civil servants would be rounded up, but the figures would be too colossal…they would need amnesty, pa zed there is corruption for days, make that weeks nah years and then some.