ACTIONAID Zambia country director Nalucha Ziba has called for the review of the Loans and Guarantees Act as Parliament resumes sitting, so that it is enhanced in line with the constitutional provision on debt contraction.

In an interview, Ziba said her organisation also expected to see the NGO bill in the next Parliamentary session as well as laws which strengthen the fight against corruption.

“Well as Parliament resumes or opens, our expectation is that we want to see the Loans and Guarantees Act reviewed so that it is enhanced in line with the constitutional provision on debt contraction. That will help in terms of dealing with issues that the country has been having around the issues of debt as well as debt transparency when it comes to contraction of loans. Our expectation was also to see the NGO bill into this session of Parliament, considering the number of work that the NGOs have done,” she said.

“It was our expectation that we will be able to see in this session of Parliament as well, laws that strengthen the fight against corruption. As you know there are many laws that have to do with corruption according to the UNGA but we have not domesticated most of them. What we have domesticated are very few, so to enhance the fight against corruption we need to ensure that most of those are domesticated. So for us really those are our key areas of focus that we would really want to see in this session of Parliament.”

Ziba urged the new government to ensure that the Access to Information Bill was tabled in Parliament.

“The Freedom of Information Bill, our expectation is that the bill has been finalized for a long time and has been gathering dust. We seem to be seeing successful governments growing cold feet when it comes to tabling it before Parliament. So it is our hope that the new government will walk the talk by ensuring that the Access to Information Bill is tabled by Parliament and citizens have access to the required and necessary information. That also is key when it comes to development, but also transparency and accountability,” said Ziba.