Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) has said the involvement of Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) officers is not a guarantee that corruption will be curbed in road tender processes.
TIZ director Goodwell Lungu said the involvement of ACC in the evaluation of tenders at Road Development Agency (RDA) was welcome but a lot still needed to be done to counter abuses and corruption in the road sector.
Mr Lungu said in response to a press query that it was difficult to ascertain that the involvement of the ACC or TIZ in monitoring the tender processes would reduce corruption.
“As far as TIZ is concerned there is no assurance that corruption will be abated in the tender processing by simply monitoring the tender evaluation system. There is need for strict monitoring and commitment to integrity pacts,” he said.
Mr Lungu said there could only be an assurance with the implementation of multiple strategies that also included monitoring the entire process and availing full information to the public especially on the implementation phase.
“We have seen reports suggesting wrong doing in this sector that includes Auditor General’s reports and no action taken and that just breeds more impunity for wrong doing in this sector. The tender process needs to be made more transparent and open much more to the public,” he said.
TIZ has in the past years continued to be observers on the tender processes that had proved complex.
He said it was not enough to merely take part or observe the tender process evaluation without following up on the implementation side.
“The implementation part is much more cardinal and also requires the availability of information to citizens with regards to issues on how much the government releases, the quality of roads being made, the expected duration of the project and all the technical data. It is public knowledge that huge sums of public funds have been lost in this sector and very limited punitive measures have been employed,” he said.
Citizens Forum programmes manager Chitalu Ng’andu said the involvement of the ACC in the RDA awarding of tenders to road contractors was welcome but appealed to the Commission to investigate the previous contracts.
Parliament last month heard that Government had engaged officers from the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to oversee tender evaluations of road construction contracts.
Transport, Works, Supply and Communication Deputy Minister Mwimba Malama said ACC officers were involved in the evaluation and processing of tenders aimed at ensuring transparency in the processing of road contracts.
THIS IS DANGEROUS.
IF THE ACC GETS INVOLVED IN TENDER EVALUATION, THEY CANNOT INVESTIGATE A MATTER THEY WERE A PARTY TO!
I APPEAL TO THE AUTHORITIES NOT TO ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN, AS IT WILL REDUCE THE GOVERNANCE INDICATORS.
THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR INVESTOR CONFIDENCE.
Can’t you see that that is the sole purpose of involving them- kudyamo also so that they are rendered toothless (Oh my foot! They are already toothless, maybe tongueless, lipless even). This governemnt is Fast! Unless you run very fast, you will never catch them.
Its like a thief going together with a policeman to steal. Wrong move! ACC should not not take part in the tendering otherwise they will have no teeth.
Kalinso. I agree with you. This is not right for Governance issues. The Independence of ACC will be compromised. Granted they take part in awarding of a Tender, how are they going to adjudicate or investigate an Audit query from the Auditor Generals’ office related to “waste of Government resources” for example? Let the process be as transparent as possible and allow the Technocrats in these departments to run with the affairs accordingly and then the other authorities act as per their mandates. Putting all these law related authorities in one basket will create an enforcement gap in the system. I hope some one will reassess the risks involved in this approach being championed now. Secondly, the process will delay further as ACC staff require a lot of teaching on tender processes…
I dont think the general public will appreciate the technical data and or quality of roads that the road development agency will put to tender.FTJ thought putting a thick layer of asphalt meant quality of the road.This is very misleading because the quality of a road is not mearured by the surfacing such as the thickness of the asphalt.There are many parameters that form the quality of the road that only Engineers would understand.The ACC should only be concerned on the transparency of the tender process.The award of road projects starts with the technical evaluation of the bids that the ACC and the general public will most likely wont understand.The cost of a road project and time of construction are the last things considered!
RB failed to convince Raila Odinga to concede defeat in Mondays election in Kenya and Elias Chipimo voted for Uhuru kenyata using the names kariuki kamwengu
Where is the Zambia Public Procurement Agency in this fiasco?