Fact Checking: Where Did The Debt Money Go?

Following the announcement this week that Government intends to contract French firm Lazard Freres for advisory services relating to liability management of its debt portfolio.at a cost of US$5 million the Alliance for Community Action (ACA) has shared the findings of some of its fact finding missions looking at how the money has been spent.

Writing on social media the group’s director Laura Miti stated,

“The Alliance for Community Action (ACA) recently carried out a fact check initiative to see how the debt Zambia has contracted has been used.

Specifically, the fact checkers investigated whether the USD120 million dollars that was allocated to Zambia Railways, from the first Eurobond, with the stated objective of improving train speeds and the condition of the train carriages, did indeed improve train services.

In other words, are trains faster and carriages in good condition after the expenditure of 120 million dollars of borrowed money.

The ACA factchecking unit put a fact checker on the train to and from Livingstone.

Below are the findings from the trip”