Salutations
- The Guest of Honour, Permanent Secretary Administration- Ministry of Justice
- The IMF Country Representative
- The Chandler Foundation Zambia Country Director, Mr Rueben Lifuka
- Representatives from government ministries and agencies
- Representatives of Civil Society Organisations
- Members of the Press
- Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning. It is my great pleasure to present the key recommendations from the Rapid Assessment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Governance Diagnostic Assessment (GDA) Recommendations for Zambia.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, Transparency International Zambia undertook this rapid assessment, to contribute to ongoing governance reforms in Zambia’s anti-corruption space and the broader governance landscape under the framework of the IMF supported program and Open Government Partnership. This rapid assessment received overwhelming support from relevant stakeholders including state and non-state actors both local and international. We are especially grateful for the support we received from the International Monetary Fund, with their staff taking time to provide key insights during the conceptualization and reviewing of the final draft report. This study would not have been possible without the financial and technical support of the Chandler Foundation, which commissioned the study, and thereby demonstrated their trust in TI-Z’s ability to undertake this noble task.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, one of the key objectives of this study was to provide recommendations on the priority and sequencing of specific milestones over the next 4 years following the assessment of government’s progress in implementing the GDA recommendations. The recommendations in our rapid assessment report have therefore been specified with defined timeframes for government and non-state actor action. This approach is important as it is not possible to implement all the envisioned governance reforms in the short term and demonstrates the need for collective action and a multi-stakeholder approach to achieving real change.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, considering these findings, Zambia should take action to finalize the regulations, rules and guidelines to make the Access to Information law effective and enhance non-state actor consultations in the legal reform process. This should include the ongoing review of the Anti-Corruption Act and operationalization of the ATI law. Further, it is our view that the IMF should also improve the scope of structural benchmarks and GDA recommendations by incorporating best practices and international standards, as the recommendation to enact the Access to Information law lacked specific guidance on the content and process.
Ladies and Gentlemen, at an opportune time, Zambia should amend its Constitution to strengthen the independence of the Judiciary by reducing the powers of the President in the appointment and removal processes. Further, the ongoing amendment of the Companies Act No. 10 of 2017 should also bring the provisions on beneficial ownership in line with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards, including the introduction of administrative sanctions for non-compliant companies.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, the Zambian government should address the implementation challenges in the roll out of the E-Government Procurement system, including internet connectivity and power outages; and issue a policy directive to mandate the publication of the Tax Expenditure Reports on measures that result in significant forgone revenues.
Following this rapid assessment on the status of implementation of the GDA recommendations in Zambia, TI-Z also calls upon the Zambian government, through the Ministry of Finance and National Planning, to increase funding to the Zambia Revenue Authority in order to increase coverage and enhance the human resource and technical capacity in conducting internal audits. The government should also urgently take action to control illegal mining so as to reduce the loss of life and strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Development (MMMD) to monitor the environmental commitment of legal mining operations.
Finally, we also recommend the enhancement of the performance and institutional autonomy of the Office of the Auditor General by issuing a Statutory Instrument to make the Public Audit Act No. 29 of 2016 and the State Audit Act No. 27 of 2016 effective. These reforms are critical if Zambia is to make more progress in implementing the GDA recommendations.
As I conclude, I wish to reiterate TI-Z’s continued commitment to the anti-corruption and good governance agenda, and we are grateful to partners such as the Chandler Foundation, IMF, other CSOs and indeed government for their mutual commitment in that respect. It is our fervent hope that all of us as stakeholders will find our entry points for making our contributions to the full attainment of the GDA recommendations.
With these few remarks, it is now my honour to declare this report officially launched.
I thank you!
