Can politicians be objective?

The question we need to ask is; can politicians whose political party is funded by individuals or groups, be objective in not favouring those individuals or groups when it comes to access to government contracts?

The straight answer is no, they cannot but they need to be if we are to fight corruption. They can only be so if they are adequate checks and balances to ensure that even if they are not objective, they are unable to effect any favour.

Government procurement and tender procedures must therefore be an area of focus. In my opinion, the regulating of the funding of political parties cannot be isolated from the need for transparent governance and internal controls especially on government procurement procedures.

We all know the challenges faced here, where, political parties tend to deploy their cadres into strategic positions in anticipation of individuals returning favours for such appointments. This practice is rife in African countries. In fact the ANC in South Africa openly admits that yes indeed it has a policy of cadre deployment. This has resulted in serious corruption in the procurement of government business, especially where tenders are offered – obviously in the name of Black Economic Empowerment!

Unfortunately, in the USA for example, we also have seen favour to specific companies when it comes to defence contracts even in the face of strong regulations of political funding.

I do not think that this practice can be totally curbed but could be mitigated through an independent government procurement body and an independent tender board which must take away the function from line ministries. This, of course may have its inefficiencies regarding the speed at which objective decision can be made. But rather than having a loose decentralized and opaque system as in the case in developing democracies, the secret, of course, would be to appoint individuals to these bodies who are non partisan but also, to have such bodies accountable to the public. For example all information could be made available to the public on the internet as the UK plans to do.

Another problem we face is the Official Secret Acts that tends to limit access by the public to government information. The new Zimbabwean constitution deals with this matter but we are yet to see it in practice.

It must be evident to all that the funding of political parties and its effects are rather complex subjects that cannot be effectively dealt with without looking at governance as a whole.

It is therefore important that, when considering solutions, to examine and understand all facets of government practice, values and systems that are in place.

In emerging democracies it will take a long time and significant political will to ensure that political funding has no negative effects on governance.

By Vince Musewe