Remarks by Mrs. Priscilla Chikonde Chansa, TI-Z
Chapter President, at the Press Briefing to Assess Two Years of the UPND in Office, on 17th August 2023
=======================================================
Ladies and Gentlemen. On behalf of the Transparency International Zambia Board of Directors, the General Membership and the Secretariat, allow me to welcome you all to this Press Briefing, which marks the first formal media engagement of the new TI-Z Board of Directors that was recently elected, and which I have the distinct honour of chairing as Chapter President.
As mentioned by the Executive Director in his welcome remarks, today’s briefing is an opportunity for us as TI-Z to share our perspectives on the performance of the United Party for National Development (UPND) on the specific aspects of the fight against corruption and the enhancement of good governance, 2 years after they were given the mandate to govern Zambia. The UPND was elected into government on 12th August 2021 on a promise of change. At the time, it was evident that corruption had become entrenched and institutionalized, thereby eroding public trust in institutions of governance. In recognition of these governance deficiencies, and as part of their 20212026 Manifesto, the UPND promised to restore law and order, to attain macroeconomic stability and to enhance the fight against corruption in Zambia.
Ladies and Gentlemen. In fulfilment of our mandate as the leading civil society anticorruption watchdog institution in Zambia, we took time to analyze the UPND manifesto prior to the 2021 general elections, along with the manifestos of the Patriotic Front and the Socialist Party, the three parties having been the only ones that formally gave us their manifestos to analyze from an anti-corruption and good governance perspective. Our analysis of the manifestos revealed that the UPND made a number of key commitments regarding good governance and the fight against corruption.
In our continued quest to promote transparency and accountability, we have undertaken a comprehensive post–election analysis of the UPND manifesto and campaign promises in order to rate their performance. As we mark 2 years of the UPND in office, we believe that is important “to provide an assessment of the UPND administration’s performance in the anti-corruption fight and the promulgation of good governance, as well as to provide practical recommendations on strengthening the anti-corruption agenda and overall governance architecture in Zambia during the remaining three years of the UPND’s mandate.
Ladies and Gentlemen. Allow me to begin by highlighting the methodology we have used to do this assessment. In analyzing the UPND administration’s performance, TI-
Z utilized the ruling party’s manifesto for the period 2021 to 2026. In line with our operational focus areas, we concentrated on the objectives on corruption, rule of law and economic management. These objectives provided the basis for our qualitative assessment of progress and performance across seven (7) anti-corruption thematic areas and two (2) sub-themes on the general governance environment. In our analysis, we utilize a three-point scale from low to high, with low meaning poor performance, moderate meaning fair performance, and high meaning good performance. We supplemented our analysis with creditable media reports and articles as part of a comprehensive desk review.
Ladies and Gentlemen. I will now turn to the main findings of our analysis, which I will present in three separate parts: Part One will consider the performance of the UPND administration in Strengthening the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) while Part Two will highlight their performance in seven (7) specific areas with respect to the fight against corruption. Finally, Part Three (3) will present our assessment on the general good governance environment.
With respect to the main objective to strengthen the ACC as the main public body that has the constitutional mandate to fight corruption in Zambia, we have rated the UPND administration’s performance as moderate. The UPND administration has taken some positive strides by demonstrating political will, promptly appointing a substantive Director General, Commissioners, and increasing budgetary allocations towards the ACC. On that last aspect, funding to the Commission increased from ZMW 72.3 million in 2021 to ZMW 101.1 million in 2022, a 39.8% increase, which can be cited as a clear indication of actualizing the political will to fight corruption more effectively. Despite these positive steps however, the government is yet to deliver on their commitments to finalize the National Anti-Corruption Policy, to amend anti-corruption laws, and to enhance the operational independence of the ACC, and it is on that basis that we have rated them moderately on this overarching objective.
Ladies and Gentlemen. With respect to the seven (7) specific anti-corruption measures in the UPND manifesto, we have rated three (3) as moderate, another three (3) as low and one (1) as inconclusive due to its ambiguity. On the positive side, the UPND administration has made notable progress in establishing special fast track anticorruption courts, and the use of unexplained wealth orders in seeking to recover suspected plundered public resources. Our rating on this score would have been higher had the administration taken steps to enact the Access to Information and Lifestyle Audit laws, and had they also enforced the declaration of assets and liabilities to support the operationalization of the Lifestyle Audit mechanism. It is our view that failure to make progress on those specific aspects is at odds with the commitments made by the UPND especially prior to their election into office.
As regards upholding the rule of law and enhancing economic management and the management of public resources as part of the good governance environment, we have rated the UPND administration’s performance as moderate and high, respectively. We have noted that there have been significant strides made in addressing political violence and cadresim, even though pockets of politically motivated intimidation have persisted, as seen in the flare-ups of violence during byelections, as well as the storming of radio stations featuring opposition political party leaders. On the economic front, the UPND has scored our highest rating following improved fiscal discipline, on the basis of which the economic recovery programme supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was agreed and signed.
Ladies and Gentlemen. It is our overall assessment that the UPND administration has fared moderately in fulfilling its manifesto and campaign promises in the first two years of its mandate. We also take cognizance of the fact that the manifesto promises were largely crafted in broad terms, with no specific articulation of when they would be achieved, which has enabled the regime to highlight that they have a 5-year mandate in response to any criticism about their failure to fulfil campaign promises. While it is commendable that some progress has been made on several campaign promises, it is also clear that there remains more that the UPND needs to do in order to actualize what they promised the people of Zambia, especially on the anti-corruption and good governance landscape.
In that regard, it would be beneficial to the citizenry for the UPND to improve their communication regarding not only the commitments they have fulfilled or are on the way to fulfilling, but also being transparent enough to openly communicate their failures and how they intend to improve in that regard. With reference to some unfulfilled promises, TI-Z has noted some backtracking on political commitments and positions of the UPND in government, when compared to when they were in opposition. These include the clear backtracking on developments in Forest 27 and the issuance of mining licenses in national parks.
Ladies and Gentlemen. As I conclude, allow me to emphasize that the second objective of this analysis was to provide practical recommendations on strengthening the anti-corruption agenda and the practice of good governance in Zambia. We are therefore happy to make the following 11 recommendations based on our analysis:
- The government should ensure the full domestication of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). The UNCAC has specific articles on enhancing the autonomy of national anti-corruption bodies, access to information, and improving the management of public funds, which are all in line with the UPND Manifesto.
- In amending the Anti-Corruption Act, the government should enhance the operational and financial autonomy of the ACC. Further, the amended Act should ensure that the Director General of the ACC is appointed on merit through the Board as opposed to presidential appointment, guarantee the autonomy of the office and insulate the office from political influence of any sort.
- The government, through the Ministry of Justice, should expedite the finalization of the National Anti-Corruption Policy in order to provide policy direction for the anticorruption fight.
- The Judiciary should expedite the development of regulations for the Economic and Financial Crimes fast track court and ensure the court has specialized judges.
- Considering the progress made so far in developing the long-awaited Access to Information law, the government should facilitate and advance its enactment without further delay.
- The government, through the Ministry of Justice, should facilitate the streamlining of asset declarations with clear procedures and processes for annual declarations and a monitoring mechanism of the declaration within the year. This should also include the establishment of an autonomous institution or specific directorate under the ACC to collect the declarations and conduct lifestyle audits.
- In actualizing the Motion passed by Parliament in December 2022, the Ministry of Justice should draft legislation on lifestyle audits for presentation to Parliament, while seeing to it that there is wide consultation in the process.
- The government, through the ACC, should provide a formal update on ‘Operation Recovery’ and state the worth of forfeited and recovered resources so far. This should be coupled with strengthening the mechanism for managing the funds from forfeited and recovered assets.
- The government should guard against the resurgence of caderism and political violence during politically competitive moments such as elections.
- Government should provide a roadmap for the enactment of the Public Gathering Bill that should promulgate the civil rights and liberties of Zambians to lawful assembly.
- The government should clearly state their position on the Political Parties Bill, which seeks to increase transparency and governance of political parties’ affairs.
Ladies and Gentlemen. It is our hope that these recommendations will be considered with the seriousness they deserve. Our call to the UPND is that as the party in power, they should always embrace constructive criticism in order to identify their shortcomings, which will provide a good basis for improving their performance during the remaining three years of their mandate.
I thank you for your attention, and may the almighty God bless us all.
