All People’s Congress leader Nason Msoni says under the current adminstration, Zambia is not ready to receive a loan facility given the clear lack of accountability and corrupt mechanisms of procurement of services.

In a Facebook post yesterday, Msoni stated that it would be irresponsible to bankroll an irresponsible government.

“We believe that the country under the current administration is not ready to receive the loan facility given the clear lack of accountability and corrupt mechanisms of procurement of services.
We think it would be a tragic mistake to bankroll a government that is so wasteful and irresponsible in the management of public funds. The case in point is the recent reckless purchase of 42 fire tenders at 42 million dollars implying on average that each fire engine cost a million dollars. Clearly this is open theft of public funds,” Msoni stated.

“We quite frankly think that the IMF loan is another opportunity for a few greedy-characters to share the money through inflated cost price and connivance with known contractors. We do not have strong internal financial controls. The failure by IMF to insist on good governance and accountability might well be the downfall of the Project and the essence of the facility. The easiest part under the current circumstance lies in the deferment of the facility to the future. The most difficult decision should be disbursing money clearly to a dictatorship most likely to squander money on international travels through hiring of private jets at the expense of poor people. Truthfully speaking chances of embezzlement of these funds is higher than the stated reasons of contracting the facility,” stated Msoni.

He stated that the “PF leader’s grand corruption should worry the IMF.

“PF leader’s grand corruption should surly worry IMF. it can’t be business as usual for the IMF with a government whose propriety and integrity has been questioned by its own citizens at home.
The unprecedented rise in corruption levels in Zambia may have reached similar proportions to the corruption witnessed in Nigeria under the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. The apparent lack of political will by the political leadership of the country to deal firmly with the vice is apparent for all to see. Corrupt Cabinet Ministers are shielded by the appointing authority. Public Private Partnerships dubbed PPP are the legitimate conduits of money laundering and siphoning of public funds by corrupt individuals in government,” stated Msoni.

“No one gives a clear satisfactory answer on how the two Euro-bond funds where used. The truth is that the funds where misapplied and misappropriated by a few people and the burden of repayment is now the liability passed on to poor citizens.”