The Global Fund has suspended more than $300 million in health assistance to Zambia because of concerns about corruption — the latest graft scandal to hit President Rupiah Banda before an election due next year.
The freeze, which is likely to affect the southern African country’s fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, comes a year after Sweden and the Netherlands suspended $33 million in Health Ministry aid due to a missing $5 million.
The European Union has also halted aid earmarked for road construction because of concerns about graft.
“The national authorities have failed thus to provide assurance of appropriate action regarding the fraud against Global Fund grant programmes,” the U.N.-initiated Fund said in a report seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
University of Zambia economist Oliver Saasa said the latest suspension should serve as another warning to Banda to get serious about graft, a growing concern to the donors who pay for 30 percent of the budget in Africa’s biggest copper producer.
“This touches directly on life and should send a signal to the government on the importance of accountability,” he said.
Banda’s anti-corruption credentials have been called into question since a junior court in Lusaka cleared former president Frederick Chiluba of graft in August and the government refused to appeal the decision.
Chiluba was accused of stealing $480,000 in Treasury funds but the court said prosecutors had failed to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt, raising an outcry from anti-graft groups and the political opposition.
Banda’s Movement for Multi-Party Democracy narrowly won an election in 2008 but is facing a serious challenge from populist opposition leader Michael Sata.
The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria gets the bulk of its funds come from the United States, Europe and Japan, and magnates such as Bill Gates also chip in.
[Reuters]
The only way out of this mess is to replace this current grossly incompetent bunch of thieves with a more competent group of people.Awe,twasebana.
Mwamona bafitolilo, impiya shikala mipita fye pamyona. Uktumpa!
Bwezani this is the end of the beginning,you are paying for letting off your dwarf friend Kafupi,these are the consequences,come 2011 you get back to petauke,i pray the tree where you were found is still there,like the tree you went to see in zimbabwe.Bwezani zwaa zwaa zwaa.
Mmmhhh!!!! $300 million can support 14 million people in medical needs for ten years. Is it 33 million which is also good for a small Zambian population. How are we so easily deceived, where are are the great and good people of Zambia that can voice their minds for the multitudes? Let’s pray to Jesus now and start working.
Fire uuseless Mulongoti..he has messed up RDA.
Veteran please share what your bosses have done with the $ 5 million. 30% of our budget is foreign, so if we spent less on luxuries and invested in agriculture, industry, God, education and moral posterity; in five years Zambia would be a second world nation fiscally.
Mwachila ama Seminar yabufi mwakuibilafye impiya shabene bapompwe.RB kuya bebele shikulu.Yaluka
:((:((
Kafupi and RB will soon start sharing a cell as soon as credible leaders form the next government
:d/:o
Where are we headed under RB please, we rely on donor money for our survival, and government has refused to re-introduce windfall tax. If the donors with-hold their money, then how will our health and education sectors function. Death is imminent for many Zambians and also the illiteracy levels will increase. How I am going to send all my 23 children to school, yangu tata, uyu RB naleta ubucushi sana. Kwena ine nshakalamuvotelako.
I think its so embarrassing being a Zambian at the moment.Chino chalo chimofwe naku Somali uku shaba na central government.Limbi naku Somalia kwawamapo pantu nabakulu bakulu bama moslems rule some parts of that country unlike us.
Its about time ! maybe when the free aid money stops flowing into the coffers pockets they will wake up. Aid money needs to go to non profits, non governmental agencies and the like with major oversight from the donors. Being there and bought the T shirt on this one.
These MMD leaders seem to be living in a bubble of their own. They are taking everyone for fools.. Inspector general of police proudly working while under warn and caution.
That MOH scandal happened a good while ago and despite having a bloated government , we are still waiting for results of investigations. At this rate , development will never be seen with this crop of leaders.
These funds were misapplied between 2006-2008 so what is the matter here? yes the country has the responsibility to prolong the lives of the poor with terminal diseases such as HIV Aids, TB and malaria. Go to emerging economies like China, India and Brazil in the G-20 and contract massive developmental debts for massive capital expenditure to stimulate and grow the economy. Us in the west know very well that the western economies are sinking deep in debts from China. Today the USA Citizens each carry a staggering debt of US $ 42,000 distributed on them by value of what the Fed owes most of which is with China.Expecting them to courageously keep pumping funds in developing economics is a fallacy.They are challenged with shrinking economies, high unemployment and indebtedness to China.
China is funding the world and Zambia cannot afford to pool cold water on China because its the only country that is financially robust and ambitiously pursuing opportunities around the world without conditionalities.Keep borrowing for capital expenditure and ploughing into real development.Reinforce the just installed Integrated Accounting Control System. Kenya and Uganda has come out of this same fiascal and they are now strong with kenya almost funding its own national budget.Muzeveni it was over this same global fund and the commonwealth Conference but Uganda has even come strong. They borrowed heavily from China and results are real fortunes.
RB and Chiluba the thief should be ready for prosecution next year 2011. RB is the worst president Zambia has ever produced. He is usless, dull and petty. He behaves like a kid for he has blinded himself from international reality. Does he think the international community does not know about the corruption of RB and the MMD? count them, the Zamtel scandle, his Ministers shooting a poor cadre, the Chiluba scandle, the RDA scandle ….all these but RB has remained quiet but he should know that the donor community is not happy. Soon they will stop funding other projects….just see how the salaries of civil servants are delayed nowadays… JUST WAIT GUYS …CHIMBOKAILA IS WAITING FOR YOU.[-([-(
HATS OFF TO the global fund and those european countries for suspending aid to Zambia. Otherwise, all the aid monies would have gone to compaign budget and not to the MoH. Can the other donnors, please follow suit? Our government is the biggest public thief in Zambia.
Let these foreign govs just take over the running of our schools and hospitals since our gov has failed to look after these institutions.Shame on you Ba RB and all your Ministers and other advisers.
# 13/14 China is not beating it`s chest why? simple. China is heavily infested by western countries,usa and europe. They are the ones driving it`s economy, the bulk of it being the USA. A lot of those companies there are from USA. Basically producing from china with cheap labor and selling back home
The moment china behaves funny or investers feel they are irrelevant, they will move there capital else where. Remember the tiger economies, where are they now?
Ukubeleshya sana sana utuma dealu. Utumamyotoka no tumayanda mumpiya isha madilu, Utuma supply utwabufi muma Ministries. Makamaka ngabaumfwa ati donor funding yamoneka ninshi elyo lwanya. Manje tizamiona pakuti naya ma spares izavuta kupeza
WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN SINGING ABOUT THIS, MMD IS BUNCH OF THIEVES SHIELDED BY THEIR LEADER RB, THEY HAVE NO AGENDA FOR THE PEOPLE BUT FOR THEMSELVES. THIS IS A WARNING AND CLEAR MANIFESTATION THAT THE CURRENT GORVERNMENT HAS FAILED THE PEOPLE AND IT IS TIME FOR THE MMD TO PACK AND LEAVE!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. I CHALLENGE POOR MMD CADRES TO WAFFLE ON THIS ISSUE AS THEY ARE USED TO??
Thanks to Kapoko . . . .
Law is irrelevant to those who consider themselves above the law. Morality and conscience are of no concern to those who consider themselves The Chosen—by a god of their own choosing. Such an unfair system of governance by Mr Chiluba & RB has no place in our Zambia dedicated to the rule of law.
Law is irrelevant to those who consider themselves above the law. Morality and conscience are of no concern to those who consider themselves The Chosen—by a god of their own choosing. Such an unfair system of governance by Mr Chiluba & RB has no place in our Zambia dedicated to the rule of law.
:d:d