Guy Scott castigates lazy civil servants
VICE-PRESIDENT Guy Scott says a number of Government projects have remained unimplemented because civil servants in some ministries want to get paid for doing nothing.
“Get your job done. We have not started yet, we have been slashing permanent secretaries and district commissioners and it’s about time we came down to you,” Dr Scott warned.
He was addressing civil servants attending a high-level dialogue on climate change meeting.
Dr Scott said Government is aware that there is too much ‘negative’ competition among some ministries with some conspiring against each other at the expense of productivity.
“There is too much of that happening and it’s going to stop. If it requires that you are chopped and sent to the village, then it’s too bad. We will not apologise,” Dr Scott said.
The meeting held at the new Government Complex in Lusaka also discussed preparations for the Rio +20 conference to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Dr Scott, who had earlier asked government officials present at the meeting to raise their hands, accused civil servants of always looking for personal advantages instead of acting as agents of the people and the state by implementing programmes.
The Vice-president was speaking against the backdrop of news that Zambia has delayed in implementing projects on climate change, thereby losing out on funding.
He observed that with a huge number of human resource attending the meeting, it was not surprising that the country is failing to keep up projects on climate change.
“There is money waiting to be spent but as usual, we are the last ones to do what is supposed to be done. We are the last ones to give money to sensible homes and objectives. I am not going to be very tolerant,” he said.
Dr Scott said the people of Zambia changed government in last year’s elections because of dissatisfaction with the pace at which things were moving under the previous administration.
“My government and President Sata are committed that we change the situation and our administration. You cannot just have elections every other year when nothing is happening after that. We want action-oriented plans. We do not want to see Zambia among the lowest-ranked group of countries when it comes to action,” Dr Scott said.
“We do have sources of intelligence and they tell us that this ministry is delaying,” he said.
Zambia is behind in implementing the adaptation in agricultural funded projects from the Least Developed Countries Funds, the pilot programme on climate resilience and the United Nations programme on reduction of deforestation and forest degradation.
The Vice-President said Zambia is vulnerable to climate change as economic and social development is largely based on natural resources.
He said a recent study on the impact of climate change estimated that floods and drought have cost the country US$13.8 billion over 30 years.
Dr Scott said the meeting provided an opportunity to dialogue with stakeholders and take the strategy forward and agree on implementing priority actions.
He said it is important for the country to sequence and coordinate all funding to ensure that it delivers in an effective and efficient manner.
Dr Scott said there is need to be creative and look beyond copper as the only mineral wealth below Zambian soil.
UN resident representative Kanni Wignaraja said there is need to stop the rapid rate of deforestation taking place in the country.
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