HOW THE ZWD LIED ABOUT AMOS MALUPENGAS ALLEGED CORRUPTION Friends of press freedom! We have written this article to demonstrate how unethical journalism compounded by force information from the opposition aimed at fixing Government can halt national development. The issue we are referring to is the ZWD report on the Contract for the Extension of the Solwezi Council Civic Centre Building. Facts on the ground: The extension of the Solwezi Civic Centre was hotly contested, debated and finally democratically agreed by the people of Solwezi through their elected representatives in the Council as a project that would advance the development of the provincial capital. The tender for the construction services was floated during the months of March and April. Please note that this project is supposed to be under taken in two phases, K6.5m is supposed to be utilized this year, and the balance will be captured in the 2014 budget. Government Regulations: As per Government regulations, the budget estimate for this project amounting to K12m, was approved by the Minister of Local Government. Another Government regulation stipulates that Local Government Councils can only sign for or authorize procurement of services of an amount up to K500,000.00. Beyond this amount, the Provincial Permanent Secretary, who also chairs the Provincial Procurement Committee is the only authorized officer who can sign for such services. As per Government regulations, the contract for the Solwezi Civic Center extension was submitted to the Attorney General and duly approved. The contract in question was signed on the 13th June 2014. Source of the ZWD article: Just before the signing on 13th June, in a Council sub-committee chaired by the Mayor comprising of some of the Councillors, an issue was raised that the Provincial Permanent Secretary was wrongfully engaging himself in signing a contract for the Council. Arguments were put forward to substantiate this position. Misrepresentation of facts: In their article, the ZWD reported that PS North-Western Province, Amos Malupenga, had no right to sign the civic centre extension contract. The ZWD insinuated corruption and abuse of office, without investigating or substantiating the matter further or in fact, explaining a normal government regulation. Kasempa Council, Mwinilunga Council, and Chingola Council all used the same regulation this year to procure services that amounted to more than K500,000.00, and the respective Permanent Secretary of the province signed the procurement contract. The truth of the matter is that Municipal Councils have no legal mandate to sign a contract above K500,000.00. The Permanent Secretary North-Western Province was merely following procedure. In fact all previous Permanent Secretaries in all provinces have proceeded in the same manner. Inaccurate and unverified information sources: A full Council meeting was to be held on the 30th June 2014 so that the implementation of the contract could begin. On the 29th June an article on the Solwezi contract for the extension of the Civic Centre appeared on ZWD. Surprisingly, the very same arguments about the Permanent Secretary wrongfully signing the contract advanced in the above mentioned Council sub-committee meeting, found their way, almost verbatim, into the ZWD article. Among other things, this article was obviously meant as a scare tactic, to influence the discussions in the full council meeting called for the next day, 30th of June and to ensure that the contract would be cancelled. The meeting on the 30th of June was postponed. Correction: On Tuesday, 1st July, a meeting was called in which the Mayor of Solwezi, Permanent Secretary N/W Province, Deputy Permanent Secretary, the Town Clerk, the Assistant Secretary, Director Administration, Provincial Local Government Officer in charge of all Councils in the Province, the Principle Accountant, and two officers from the Office of the President were present. During this meeting, the Mayor apologised for the confusion in regard to the contract signing and admitted that the Councillors had misdirected themselves by declaring that the Permanent Secretary had no right to sign on behalf of the Council. He reiterated that in fact the right procedure had been followed as only Government and not Council can contract services of that amount. The Mayor undertook to ensure that this correction was communicated to all the Councillors. Connivance with “Sources with Agendas”: Thereafter, the building site was supposed to be handed over to the contractor to begin his work, but some Councillors moved to delay the handover to after the long weekend of 7th and 8th July. At the same time during that weekend, another well-timed article appeared in the ZWD with more misinformation. Fabrication: To shore up their misinformation and garner more sensationalist mileage, the ZWD fabricated that the Town Clerk had hastily cooked up another contract to regularise the anomaly of the “illegal” Contract signed by the Permanent Secretary, Amos Malupenga. Investigations reveal that no such contract was ever written, in fact no such contract exists. This is pure falsehood. As it stands a full Council meeting was held last week and communication on Government regulations was made with the assistance of the Town Clerk. After the explanation, the meeting expressed no problem with the Permanent Secretary signing the contract and the project was endorsed. The points being made are these: Misrepresentation of facts, fabrication, and connivance with “Sources with Agendas”, inaccurate and unverified information sources, and deliberate misrepresentation of facts are the hallmark of unethical journalism. Ethical journalism demands accuracy, this entire report is inaccurate in a number of aspects, simply because no further objective investigation on the matter was carried out. Such haste and carelessness in a journalistic report smacks of a hidden agenda. The timing of the appearance of the reports in the ZWD are obvious, and show a dubious collaboration between some members of the Solwezi Council and the ZWD. Please note that the Solwezi Council is dominated by MMD and UPND members, with only 2 PF Councillors. Ethical journalism demands the verification of information and the assessment of the credibility of sources, lest reports misguide and misinform the reader, as is demonstrated in this case. All the information given as fact was disproved and corrected by the Mayor of Solwezi himself. Ethical journalism demands that if a story is corrected, the readership are alerted to the new facts. The Councillors and the Mayor have since admitted that they misled themselves in coming to the conclusion that the Permanent Secretary had no mandate to sign a Contract on behalf of the Council. The Council has in fact endorsed the project and cleared the misguided position. With no follow-up investigation, this correction has either not reached the ZWD or has perhaps been conveniently ignored in the name of scandal mongering or sensationalism. Unethical journalism lends itself to and gives a platform to dangerous and selfish agendas of biased, ill-intentioned or simply ill-informed groups or individuals. Take note that through such unethical reporting, the people of Solwezi could have been deprived of development they have desired, agreed to, planned and budgeted for. This type of analysis will not only be undertaken for ZWD, but other media as well. Let us put a stop to unethical journalism in all our media. Boycott bias!
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 10:45:18 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015