‘AUDIT PRIVITISATION DEALS’
GOVERNMENT must conduct an audit of the privatisation of all State owned companies and assets and repossess those that were dubiously disposed of during the Third Republic so that they benefit the people of Zambia, politician and development activist Canisius Banda has demanded.
Dr Banda, an experienced medical doctor, is former opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) vice president.
At the height of the reign of the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) under President Frederick Chiluba Government, through the Zambia Privatisation Agency (ZPA), engaged private consultants to advise the Privatisation Committee on how to dispose of unprofitable State owned enterprises and assets.
But there have been persistent allegations that some of them dubiously bought the same assets.
Dr Banda said in a write-up yesterday there was an urgent need to conduct a thorough audit into the privatisation of all State enterprises focusing on their asset-liability ratios for the purpose of valuation because records are still there.
He said once such properties were repossessed Government could partially privatise some of them and commercialise others under State control.
“Further, another audit should be done of the privatisation that came with the Third Republic to ascertain transparency, accountability and business fair play. Those dubiously disposed of should be repossessed,” Dr Banda said.
He proposed two options for repossessed State owned enterprises.
“Some should be commercialised still under State control. Others should partially be privatised through the acquisition of shares in them by partners [public private partnerships through the Zambia National Commercial Bank model],” Dr Kalumba said.
Maintenance of State properties under the Ministry of Works and Supply should be outsourced so that the private sector could participate.
“This will create jobs, improve efficiency and put money in people’s pockets,” Dr Banda said.
He said not all the roads should be in government hands but there should be a policy shift to ensure some roads were built and run by the private sector or through PPPs [similar to the planned Mwenda-Kasomeno Toll Road project in Luapula Province].
Dr Kalumba said: “The same should happen to markets and bus stations. Some of these centres of commerce should either be privately run or co-run with the State.”
He said importation of equipment for agro-processing need to attract little or no tax, which would in the long run translate into improved balance of payment for Zambia.
The Bank of Zambia should reform the lending regime by banks to promote loan independence, a phenomenon which refers to the freedom to spend as one deems fit devoid of stifling or biased conditionalities from and enforced by the lender.
Dr Banda’s clarion call to Government to institute a serious inquiry into the disposal of State companies and properties comes on the back of persistent complaints by a number of other citizens.
They have been complaining that some of the people who actively participated in the disposal of State companies and assets have ended up as the buyers themselves, which amounts to corruption.
Some of these people have become wealthy from the profits they reap from the dubiously acquired State companies and assets.
Some have proposed that Government appoints a commission of inquiry into the whole exercise so that those who may have information can come out and expose the culprits.