INFORMATION and Broadcasting Services Minister Dora Siliya says she is pleased that government has functioning systems which managed to expose irregularities at the Ministry of Health, among other institutions.
Debating President Edgar Lungu’s address to the House, Tuesday Siliya extolled government’s functional systems, which she said had worked to expose corruption at the Ministry of Health, among other irregularities that emerged at other institutions.
She stressed that President Edgar Lungu could not be everywhere to resolve irregularities that emerged at government institutions because he was elected at the Executive-level.
“In this eco-system of governance, whether it’s the Executive, the Parliament or the Judiciary, we have systems that govern us and in governance; you don’t expect that the President will be sitting at the Ministry of Health to address issues. The President is elected by the people through our value system of democracy and in that value system, you come down now to levels of management, it’s all part of our national values and morals. This is the eco-system of national governance in terms of our national values at which we have agreed to govern ourselves,” Siliya said.
“So, I think it’s a big folly, Mr Speaker, that people should say the country has come to a standstill because of one highlighted issue, whether it’s at the Ministry of Health or anywhere. Make no mistake, I am not saying that that should be encouraged, one of the things I am pleased about is that our system is actually working and we are able to quickly identify these problems, these cogs in the system because if the system does not work, that would even be worse. As we continue, these national values at national-level, they have to be brought down to family-level, and at family-level, people who go to work; people who come to Parliament; people who do whatever they do in their life as work come from a home and these values have to continue to be espoused at family-level, and I think that this was the message from the President understanding that these values are not out of context, they have a clear context.”
Siliya, who also doubles as Chief Government Spokesperson, stressed that Zambia’s governance system had continued to work.
“Mr Speaker, as a country, we have agreed on these values and in agreeing on these values, we have agreed on how to govern ourselves and one of the ways to govern ourselves is that we will have an Executive, we will have Parliament and we will have the Judiciary and the Executive. And these systems include an eco-system despite corruption, Mr Speaker. And so, in espousing these national values, Mr Speaker, we cannot isolate one item and put it out of context…And one of the good things that we should actually be highlighting is that as a country, our systems work, the very fact that they work is why we can be able to identify when something goes wrong very quickly. And this eco-system in particular the eco-system as part of our national values in terms of governance, is able to pin-point very quickly that, ‘here the system is not working and we need to correct it,’ and when that is done, it is actually a good thing,” argued Siliya, the Petauke Central PF member of parliament.
“What will not be a good thing is that as part of the national values in terms of governing eco-systems, we are not able to identify, but the fact that we are able to do it should actually be very relieved that our systems work, which is why we have those agencies that investigate. Agencies that are at court-level, at the Judiciary to ensure that they address these issues until somebody goes to court. But that does not mean that the rest of the country is not operating as insinuated by other speakers, the rest of the country has to continue to operate, government, the Executive on its part has to continue to provide for citizens in terms of education, in terms of health, in terms of roads; the Judiciary has to continue to operate and Parliament, too, has to continue to operate and do what it is there to do.”
