IT’S ALL RUBBISH
…‘No sacred cows’ in graft fight yet you only target your opponents – US
By Mast Reporter
THE rhetoric that there are no sacred cows in the fight against corruption is rubbish because there is selective targeting of opponents, the United States (US) government has said.
Outgoing United States (US) Ambassador to Zambia Michael Gonzales said there were no cows except those who were deemed disloyal to the United Party for National Development (UPND) government.
Gonzales was speaking when he delivered a broad, hard-hitting farewell message on Thursday that laid bare the country’s deeply entrenched corruption, “The rhetoric of ‘no sacred cows’ is rubbish when there aren’t any cows except those who are deemed to be disloyal. When only opponents are arrested but not those in office engaged in the very same practices, the hollow rhetoric of ‘rule of law’ only further keeps investors away, preventing the creation of growth, jobs and tax revenues to pay for public service commitments,” Gonzales said.
He condemned the rushed amendment of the Constitution of Zambia through the passing of Bill 7 in defiance of a ruling by the country’s highest court.
“When Parliament ignores the Constitutional Court’s ruling that the process used to ram through a constitutional amendment was itself unconstitutional, investors rightly ask ‘If they can do that to the constitution, what does that mean for the sanctity of my contract?’ They rightly wonder if the next constitutional amendment which the Attorney General [Mulilo Kabesha] has already announced is really just a guise for resetting term limits,” Gonzales said.
He said there was so much corruption in the country that every year, hundreds of millions of dollars of government money was lost through the vice.
“Certainly, it’s not just US taxpayers’ support that is stolen. Every year, the country loses out on hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment and growth because they are hijacked by unmitigated petty corruption, blocked because law-abiding investors refuse to pay kickbacks to Zambian bureaucrats or leaders who are never held accountable,” Gonzales said.
He scoffed at the narrative of the US-Zambia relationship sung by the UPND regime.
The relationship was adorned with flowery words of “partnership,” “collaboration,” “strategic” or “mutual” yet, “Regrettably, the reality of our unrequited relationship for decades has been starkly different”.
Gonzales said for years, the US had funded programmes and sent technical advisors to help achieve Zambia’s development objectives but most of the money had been stolen by those in government.
