FORMER education minister Michael Kaingu says the levels of governance in the country have dwindled to alarming levels.

And Kaingu described his former party, MMD, as a dead party.

In an interview, Kaingu, said during the MMD reign, cabinet ministers were made to account for any wrong decisions which was not the case under President Edgar Lungu.

“What is to blame really are our institutions. Our institutions seem to have collapsed, that is what is clear. That is what is most worrying for me; the institutions are not as such as effective. You remember in our time, at least Minister Dora Siliya appeared before a tribunal and she was suspended but we are not seeing these things happening. Ministers are being investigated whilst they are still in office. So I think it’s the institutions which are not effective,” Kaingu said.

“You see, to govern, you must have strong institutions. These are things that you should put yourself. Just like in school, for a school to run properly, it is not the head master, for the school to run properly it’s the rules that you put; it’s the school rules. For instance, if the head master would be guided by rule number one; if you went out of bounds and you aware that you cannot go out of school premises without permission there, ‘we are punishing you, go and dig that trench’, that is how it is. So, institutions are fundamental in terms of governance you cannot govern without strong institutions. These are the ones the Judiciary, the Anti Corruption Commission all these institutions of governance.”

He urged PF officials to work hard on losing the corruption tag.

“I don’t think everyone is happy with the governance levels. There is quite a lot to be done before 2021. Our colleagues in government have to put our institutions in order because we have seen in the by elections that we have had we have seen situations which were extremely out of control. As for corruption, it is the perception that almost everybody has and it will be up to the government really and the people in office to clean themselves. We may not argue because we don’t have resources to investigate our colleagues but the President has institutions and resources that can see for him,” he said.

When asked to comment on the current status of the MMD, Kaingu said it was a dead party.

“You aware that I was the vice president in that party. For me, I think that party finished that time. When me and my other colleagues vice president Brian Chituwo the other members of the national executive when we were expelled by president Nevers Mumba; for me that time is when the party ended. The rest was just struggling coming out of the mud because it is too late. There is no MMD really to say I don’t think it can make an impact in anything. I don’t see serious existence in the MMD. As a party, I don’t see how effective it can be in anything,” said Kaingu.