Saturday, 12 December 2009

Aid for a non-existent policy.

The UK's Department for International Development (DfID) is pumping nearly £6m to implement the National Anti Corruption Policy (NACP):

“I am pleased to announce that I have today approved a further programme of DFID support in the fight against corruption in Zambia. All of us, whether government, civil society, co-operating partner, or Zambian citizen, have a key role to play in resisting and combating corruption and ensuring that our resources are used for the purposes we intend,” said DFID head of the Zambia office Mike Hammond during the United Nations International anti-Corruption Day yesterday.

The commission stated that this would also help civil society organisations so that Zambian citizens could be involved in anti-corruption initiatives. It stated that support would be given to parliamentarians so they could act more effectively in the fight against corruption.

“The UK has been a strong supporter of the government of Zambia’s fight against corruption. Since the year 2000, DFID has already provided £8.4 million to the Anti Corruption Commission and the Task Force through the Anti Corruption Commission Enhancement Support (ACCES) project which finished earlier this year,” read the statement in part.
Wasted money if you ask me because the NACP has largely been discredited by many observers. It is baffling why organisations like DfID spend money on policies that have no ownership among common people. Is there anyone outside State House who regard the NACP as a credible attempt to fight corruption? Perhaps more bizarre is that DfID has yet to justify what was really achieved in funding the Task Force on Corruption, which even the government has concluded was poor value for money and is now been investigated for corruption! Surely before you commit more money, the least one can do is check that money previously spent has worked.

THEMES : ,

1 Comments:

  1. In these very difficult economic times, the UK tax payer should be asking their government lots of questions, for it is their hard-earned money that is being splashed around. However, the problem I see for DFID is that they've got a delicate balance to strike between interfering with a country's internal affairs, and allowing a country to decide its own fate.

    Lest we forget, when a British court meted a guilty verdict on FTJ on charges of corruption, a lot of Zambians played the "SOVEREIGNTY" card!

    The funding for the Task Force may have been flawed, but trust me, the British knew just what FTJ had done and very much wanted him to be brought to account. As Republican President, FTJ himself infamously told off aid organisations for doing just that. I recall he used to say something like "if we squandered the money then it's our decision, not anyone else's." I just didn't know he meant it literally.
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