I’d like to extend a very warm welcome to all of you attending this very important event today. As Transparency International Zambia, we are privileged and excited to be launching our COVID-19 programme, which comprises the two COVID projects that we are currently implementing, with a third one already in the pipeline. We feel privileged because we see this launch as an endorsement, by our partners, of the work that they have supported to enable us develop interventions that are contributing to Zambia’s wider response to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, we remain sombre in acknowledging the devastating effects that COVID-19 has wrought globally, nationally, in communities and even in our families. We remember all lives lost, as well as the livelihoods that have been lost or negatively affected by the pandemic. It is indeed clear that our whole way of life has been impacted and changed because of COVID-19, and this calls for sombre reflection on how we should continue to respond.
As the Zambia Chapter of Transparency International, we acknowledge that despite the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, the response to it, by virtue of its emergency and urgent nature, can and does provide opportunities for corruption and fraud to occur. These risks have been evidenced and have emanated not just globally, but also in our own country, as was seen in the Auditor General’s Interim Report on the Utilisation of COVID resources in November last year, which highlighted mismanagement of COVID funds to the tune of K1.3 billion. Indeed, it is disheartening that even with lives at risk, certain individuals engage in blatant corruption against the best interests of the majority of citizens.
As part of a global movement with a mandate to fight and challenge corruption in all its forms, we as TI Zambia have seen the need to position ourselves in contributing to the promotion of accountability and integrity in Zambia’s response to the COVID pandemic. This positioning would of course not be possible without the support of our partners, the World Bank and the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who have provided the resources to enable us implement the two COVID projects that are currently running. TI Zambia also acknowledges the need for concerted efforts in Zambia’s COVID response, and in order to do that effectively, we took the deliberate decision to collaborate with a range of stakeholders such as, among others, the Ministry of Health, Zambia National Public Health Institute, the Anti-Corruption Commission, Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority, and other civil society organisations, all of who are driven by a mutual passion to ensure that Zambia’s response to the pandemic is as effective as can be.
Through the COVID programme that we are launching today, we as TI Zambia see ourselves as playing a complementary role to what government through the Ministry of Health is doing in responding to the pandemic. So while we may not be on the frontline saving lives in the manner our gallant health personnel are doing, we intend to play our part in ensuring that resources meant for the COVID response are safeguarded and protected from corruption and other forms of abuse. Under the COVID-19 Programme that we are launching today, our work will focus on monitoring the resources provided to Zambia by the World Bank, to ensure that corruption and fraud risks along the supply chain are not only identified but also adequately addressed. We will further be monitoring the distribution of COVID vaccines so as to contribute to the transparency and fairness of the process in ensuring that that the vaccines reach even the most vulnerable and hard to reach populations. We acknowledge that vaccines save lives but at the same time, we are very aware of the myths surrounding them. We therefore pledge our support to help the Ministry of Health in demystifying these fallacies even as we implement our initiatives at national and community levels.
In implementing our COVID Programme, we will continue to advocate for access to information to promote transparency and integrity in Zambia’s COVID response. We will also advocate for accountability of resources going towards the pandemic, and that appropriate action be taken against anyone who is discovered to be corruptly profiting from the COVID response. Thus working with Law Enforcement Agencies, other civil society organisations and the media, we envisage enhanced citizen’s participation and monitoring of the COVID-19 response in a manner that is constructive and ultimately helps to build better and stronger systems for future pandemic or emergency responses, if they do come. As I conclude, we wish to reiterate our commitment as TI-Z to ensuring that there is improved transparency, accountability and integrity in the health sector in general, and in the COVID response in particular. We also reiterate our commitment to working in collaboration and partnerships – recognizing the various roles of different stakeholders and partners in ensuring that we recover from this pandemic as a country. Our call to action is that as a country, we should recover with integrity and better systems, not just for our sake today, but also that of posterity. Lastly, I wish to express my gratitude to all of you who have taken time out of your schedules to commemorate this launch with us. We appreciate your support, and we look forward to our continued collaboration as we continue the fight against corruption and against COVID-19.
