Africa-Press – Zambia. Did President Hichilema authorize Secretary to the Treasury Felix Nkulukusa’s Press Release about K1.284 Billion for farmers and government schools? Most Zambians don’t go beyond the headlines, but for those who read, that memo undressed President HH’s administration “bad-time,” as Zimbabweans say.
Mr. Nkulukusa’s statement sought to boast about releasing the money. But the truth is, the money is long overdue. President HH should have paid farmers within 60 days in office and announced the amount each school would receive the moment his administration declared free education in the nation! Partial payments of farmers in January, when they are in the heart of a new farming season simply exposes President HH as incompetent and his administration as disorganized at worst. For the man who ran on prioritizing agriculture, the Opposition could exploit this scenario as another betrayal of the Zambian people.
Didn’t the President know that farmers needed the money to reinvest in farming? How does he expect farmers to reinvest in the 2021-2022 season when they’re not paid for the 2020/2021 season? To argue that he inherited Lungu’s budget is simply an illusion–farmers are essential to the economy and the life of the nation. Most of them depend on the returns of the previous season for the following farming season–thus it betrays all logic that the Secretary could badly claim that the administration still owes hard working farmers their money.
Similarly, the administration declared free education but not details of what it entails. Every Head teacher or teacher has a different version of what free education means, and how the system will operate going forward. Why? The administration has provided no guidance at all. Besides, does the President understand the implications of releasing grants to schools a week before schools are originally set to open? Does the Regime understand how the education system works? By this time, schools should have come up with budgets and timetables. Since most schools run APU classes which depend on tuition fees, releasing the money so late will disrupt the education system. In fact, some teachers may opt out of APU classes should there be no money to pay them from the released amount. Another reason one cannot expect a successful implementation of the new policy at the beginning of the new academic year without any preparations–it is an invitation for failure. Moreover, different schools have different budgets based on number of students, areas, special needs and costs, thus the one size fits all New Dark Regime funding system is impractical. The administration should have begun by consulting teachers, Principals, Parents and education experts, and then allow Schools to make budget submissions, and finally slowly rollout the logistics before implementing this new policy.
Bally won’t fix things alone. He needs the expertise of career Civil servants and not UPND cadres. We are in January, and farmers are deep in the 2021/2022 farming season. How could the HH administration justify owing farmers K1.63 billion for the 2020/2021 season until Jan 3rd, 2022?It defies logic that it still owes them about K700 million as of today! Is this something to celebrate? Farmers needed this money in October, so where is the priority in this administration? Is this how Bally is fixing it?
The same with education. K324 million per quarter is set for schools–implying that 1.3 billion will be spent per year. How was this number arrived at? What factors did the administration take into consideration and how much will each school receive? The depositing of funds into bank accounts won’t “ensure” the “proper ” running of the schools as the Secretary suggests. On the contrary, the amount of money each school will receive will impact its operations. That’s why the Press Release was insulting–it didn’t give us any figure per school for us to know whether the money is enough or not. It was just a political statement from an institution that ought to be apolitical. The simple question is, how much will each school receive? Will Kabulonga Girls receive the same amount as Matanda School in rural Luapula? Why didn’t the Secretary tell us? Is it because he was afraid or he doesn’t know yet? Or is it a state secret? If so, tell us.
This brings us to “bursaries for vulnerable” students in boarding schools. According to Mr. Nkulukusa’s statement, they are “to be allocated through the Constituency Development Fund.” Sadly, “the guidelines are not yet “completed.” This is highly threatening, but not surprising–it is the sad reality of the cult of the Big Man, whose “off-the-cuff remarks have the power of law.” Simply because the Big Man said it, everybody accepted it without thinking. But policy is not developed off-the-cuff–rather you think through it, plan and execute. Parliament exists for this very reason. It is to debate policy issues. Alas! In the HH administration, whatever the BIG MAN SAYS, it must be done even if it does not make sense. This is not how policy works! We are headed for grand abuse of public resources simply because we are implementing an ideological program of the President which was never debated, analyzed and evaluated by policy experts. But because it is the President’s idea, it will be overwhelmingly funded. With it will come grand corruption and misuse of public funds. We don’t learn. KK’s cooperatives, and Go Back to the Land, Chiluba’s Privatization, and Presidential Housing Initiative, Mwanawasa’s Anti-Corruption Campaign, and Winter Maize Project are examples! They failed!
I understand the pressure to impress people, but the statement from the treasury is embarrassingly damaging to the administration. There’s nothing to celebrate in that release aside from the inconceivable incompetence it announced to the world.
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