Live
in Zambia and earn 140,000 kwacha re-based (2600 US dollars)? Is that rich? Yes by Zambian standards.
Poor
Zambians are waking up to the rude shock that a chief executive of a public
company is getting well above many citizens in terms of salary and other
conditions of service. I am saying so because many Zambian can only dream to
get that amount of money after toiling for more than 40 years in public
service.
As
if that is not enough, Professor Clive Chirwa lives in a luxury apartment where
it costs Zambia Railways about 72 million per month in rentals. His other
entitlement of 2.6 million kwacha rebased annual bonus and 25% share in Zambia
Railways after working for 5 years were agreed upon by his lawyers and
government prior to signing the contract. This was revealed by Prof. Chirwa
himself on ZNBC’s Sunday interview. So it must be shocking to learn that a government
that had promised to introduce austerity measures aimed at cutting unnecessary
expenditure is allowing such extravagancy at Zambia Railways.
In
this story, there is also the issue of former board members of Zambia Railways
engaging in a brawl with the Chief Executive Officer, Professor Clive Chirwa over
allowances. Mr. Chirwa has expressed disappointment over the insatiable
appetite for money by some of the board members: "I am very surprised that
people in Zambia have got this attitude of getting allowances. This thing
should come to an end. Perhaps this story of Zambia Railways will bring up some
sanity within the allowance culture where without doing anything, you get allowances.
This should be stopped once and for all".
Perhaps, Professor Chirwa has been away from home for too long because this is certainly what is happening in many institutions in the country. The whole concept of being on the board is misconstrued by many to imply a full time job where you must be paid like workers who turn up every day. We have seen this happening, not only with public institutions alone but with even private ones.
The
board before it was dissolved held a press conference at which they accused
Prof. Chirwa of “undermining their authority”. They also revealed that “the man
(Chirwa) never wanted to listen to anyone” and that “the man made obscene
demands from a company which is insolvent.”
The revelations that have come from both sides send a cold shiver down the spines of many ordinary Zambians. After all these issues have only come out because the two parties did not agree well on how to plunder the finances from the Euro bond. What is happening at Zambia Railways is only an offshoot of the hypocrisy that goes on in many institutions in this country. Many Zambians are left to wonder as to whom they should trust to run the affairs of this country on their behalf. The politicians have failed them and professionals have also done the same.
This matter brings into question the case of public investment into Zambia Railways. Gael Raballand, a senior economist at the World Bank and Alan Whiteworth, technical adviser at Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR) in their research paper puts it succinctly:
“With the poor economic
and financial returns to railway investment and the uncertainty over Congolese
traffic, public investment in railways in current circumstances appears highly
risky. Few of the new rail routes proposed in the Sixth National Development
Plan appear economically viable under any circumstances. While certain new
routes could possibly be viable if mines are prepared to sign long term
contracts, such decisions are best left to the private sector. Given its poor
track record in railways and the underfunding of essential public services,
rather than investing in railways itself, the Government’s role should be to:
(a) facilitate private investment in the sector; and (b) ensure that trucks
cover the full cost of the damage they cause to the roads by enforcing
appropriate road user charges.”
The
rest will have to be left to time to help us know whether this is a viable project
to be undertaken by government.
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