HH careless in managing public funds, GBM

Opposition Patriotic Front (PF) Presidential aspiring candidate Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba (GBM) says the decision by the President Hakainde Hichilema led government to hire private auditors to verify public accounts is a waste of taxpayers’ funds.

Commenting on the ongoing public debate as to why the government could contract private auditors, Mwamba emphasized that doing so, is an imprudent way of managing public resources.

He said spending over sixteen million kwacha on a job that can equally be done by civil servants who are employed to do it is highly disturbing especially that President Hichilema has repeatedly described his administration as prudent in the management of public funds.

“Just abolish the office of the auditor-general if you no longer need its services.

“If civil servants are capable of procuring goods and services, they are also capable of auditing expenditure and usage,” he said.

In addition, Mwamba said for a long time now, the Zambian government has been building risk management units in just about every ministry to mitigate the possible loss of public resources.

“The President must reconcile with the fact that he is no longer in the private sector where he believed that professionals there were better than those in government.

“He must now begin to trust government employees or else he will frustrate them to the point where he will end up externalizing most public functions,” GBM said.

He added that it is not rocket science to establish Zambia’s public debt, what was bought and who undertook what public works, where and how much the cost was, all this information is now public knowledge.

“The President has continued on his campaign to frustrate civil servants because he believes they are all PF cadres and that they are loyal to the former ruling party who cannot be trusted to do their jobs,” he said.

GBM said every failure by government has been blamed on civil servants who are accused of being PF cadres.

“And yet, it is the President’s own failure to appreciate how the civil service functions and how to win the confidence of government employees to work with him,” he said.