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President of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Saboi Imboela, has accused government of converting the country’s institutions of good governance into weapons for harassing and persecuting citizens perceived to be political opponents.
Imboela in an interview on Sunday alleged that it had become difficult for oversight institutions to follow up on corruption cases being perpetrated under the current government as it had weakened all institutions of good governance.
“There is clear corruption happening under the UPND government especially in the Ministry of Agriculture but oversight institutions now housed at State House under the office of the President have been paralysed and were only watching as government officials were competing in looting,” she said.
Imboela said the Ministry of Agriculture had cancelled fertiliser tenders repeatedly and corruptly awarded tenders to their associates as it was the case in the previous farming season.
Read more: ‘Remove the specks in your eyes,’ Imboela cautions UPND govt to weed itself of corrupt officials
“They cancelled the fertiliser tenders last year, they have again cancelled the fertilizer tender this year but investigative wings have not seen anything fishy with this trend,” she said.
Imboela said government was more interested in who to give the contract to than the proper management of the Farmer Input Support Program (FISP) itself.
She said Zambian had good climatic conditions and good soils but the country had failed to maximise profits from the sector because of the way government managed FISP.
Imboela said the maize could be a money spinner in Zambia if managed properly especially with the rising demand from the neighbouring countries for the commodity but the biggest hindrance was corruption in the sector.
Meanwhile, Imboela alleged that the said phasing out of FISP was one of the conditions that was given by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which government has just started implementing.
She said government was so adamant that the IMF never gave them any conditions to implement when the opposition was raising concern.
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