Lifestyle Audits Proposed For Government

This week the news has seen confusion, rumours and allegations regarding a $17 million contract awarded to Honeybee Pharmacy Limited by the Ministry of Health. According to the Ministry there was an error in the name of the company listed, which prompted accusations that Government had awarded the lucrative tender to a company that didn’t exist. Meanwhile, confusion with regards to a donation of bicycles to the Zambia Police Service has also caused a stir.

At the same time, the proposal by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) earlier this week to hike nomination fees for the 2021 elections has been criticised, with Rainbow Party General Secretary Wynter Kabimba claiming that the move makes it more likely that only parties with criminal backing will be able to afford the fees.

Against this backdrop Executive Director of the Alliance for Community Action (ACA) has challenged someone from President Lungu’s administration to submit to a lifestyle audit in order to prove that Government does not consist of thieves.

“I wonder, can one person in the Edgar Lungu administration - President, Vice President, Minister, Speaker, Chief Justice, Attorney General, Police IG, Party SG, First Lady, Party thug, just anyone - stand up and say this is what I own and this is how I earned what I own?” Miti asked on social media.

“Can just one of them submit to a life style and asset audit and we won't find that money meant for medicines, bursaries, social cash transfer, feeder roads, money that could have taken those kids with babies off Independence Avenue instead built a house and sent children to fancy schools?” she continued.

“I am asking for just one person willing to prove that the nation is wrong in believing that everyone in this administration has participated in an immoral, insatiable, destructive pursuit of unearned wealth,” Miti writes.

"To dispute the popular belief that they have all unapologetically taken from the poor. Simply, that this is not true of everyone in power - what they have legally earned quarrels with what they own. Just one person who, like Lot in the Bible, is not part of the debauchery.” 

Miti says she is willing to escort this person into the audit and is also willing to say what she owns against what she has earned and against the total official resources she has managed.